Dunya Mikhail
| Dunya Mikhail | |
|---|---|
 Reading at a Split This Rock event, 2014 | |
| Born |
1965 Baghdad, Iraq |
| Language | Assyrian; Arabic; English |
| Nationality | Iraqi |
| Alma mater | Wayne State University |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable awards | United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing |
Dunya Mikhail (born 1965 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi poet based in the United States.
Life
She was born and raised in Iraq.[1] She graduated with a BA from the University of Baghdad.[2]
Mikhail worked as Literary Editor, journalist, and translator for The Baghdad Observer.[2] After having been questioned by Saddam Hussein's government[3] and facing increasing threats and harassment from the Iraqi authorities for her writings, Mikhail fled Iraq in 1996 going first to Jordan, then eventually to the United States,[4] where she became a U.S. citizen, got married and raised a daughter.[3] She studied Near Eastern Studies and received her MA from Wayne State University.[5]
In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.[2]
Mikhail speaks and writes in Arabic, Assyrian and English. Her works include the poetry collection The War Works Hard, which won PEN's Translation Fund award,[6] was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize,[2] and was named one of the best books of 2005 by the New York Public Library, and the genre-bending work The Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry International, Modern Poetry in Translation, the London Times,[7] as well as anthologies including World Beat: International Poetry Now from New Directions, Flowers of Flame: Unheard Voices of Iraq, and Iraqi Poetry Today: Modern Poetry in Translation.
She currently lives in Michigan where she works as an Arabic instructor for Michigan State University.
Bibliography
- Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea. New Directions Publishing. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8112-1831-3.
- The War Works Hard. Translated by Elizabeth Winslow. New Directions Publishing. 2005. ISBN 978-0-8112-1621-0. (shortlisted for the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize)[8]
- The Iraqi Nights, Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2014, ISBN 9780811222860
- The Theory of Absence, Chinese University Press, 2014, ISBN 9789629966188
References
- ↑ Dunya Mikhail: 'The War Works Hard' : NPR
- 1 2 3 4 "Dunya Mikhail". Poetry foundation.
- 1 2 NPR Staff (March 21, 2013). "Revisiting Iraq Through The Eyes Of An Exiled Poet". NPR. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ↑ Solmaz Sharif (April 25, 2014). "Dunya Mikhail: Politics in Service of Poetry". Foreign Policy in Focus. Institute for Policy Studies.
- ↑ Griffin Poetry Prize biography
- ↑ "Dunya Mikhail: The War Works Hard" at the PEN American Center website; accessed 8 Mar 2011.
- ↑ Dunya Mikhail profile on Words Without Borders Web site
- ↑ "Poetry Microreview of The War Works Hard". Boston Review. Archived from the original on August 8, 2006.
The War Works Hard is a timely book, equipped to meet the demands of those readers who expect from poetry the kind of relevance that William Carlos Williams had in mind when he wrote, “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.”
External links
- Official Web site
- Dunya Mikhail interview in Guernica Magazine
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography
- Solmaz Sharif (April 25, 2014). "Dunya Mikhail: Politics in Service of Poetry". Foreign Policy in Focus. Institute for Policy Studies.
- Dunya Mikhail profile on Words Without Borders Web site
- Dunya Mikhail interview and reading on National Public Radio (NPR)
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