But his work is also important for the time in which it was written. At this point in Arab-American literary culture, the New York Pen League involving Khalil Gibran, Mikhail Naimy and Elia Abu Madi (most of whom wrote in Arabic) had dissolved, and the subsequent generation of Arab American writers (mostly poets rather than novelists) was less cohesive and less interested in writing about their Arab heritage or identity.[1] Rizk thus stands out as one of the few Arab Americans from the middle part of the century to achieve widespread attention.