Dunya Mikhail (born 1965 in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

) is an Iraqi-American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

based in the United States.

Life

She was born and raised in

to a Chaldean-Catholic family. She graduated with a BA from the

University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt. Nomenclature Both University ...

. Mikhail worked as a journalist, as editor of the literary section, and as a translator for '' The Baghdad Observer''. As a liberal writer during the time of dictatorship and censorship, Mikhail fled Iraq in 1995, going first to

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and then eventually to the United States, where she became a U.S. citizen, got married, and raised a daughter. She studied Near Eastern Studies and received her MA from

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

. In 2001, she was awarded the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. Mikhail speaks and writes in Arabic and English. Her works include the poetry collection ''The War Works Hard'', which won PEN's Translation Fund award, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and was named one of the best books of 2005 by the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

. Her genre-bending work ''Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea'' won the Arab American Book Award in 2010. Her poetry has appeared in '' Poetry International'', ''

Modern Poetry in Translation ''Modern Poetry in Translation'' is a literary magazine and publisher based in the United Kingdom. The magazine was started by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort in 1965. It was relaunched by King's College London in 1992. The College published it ...

'', the ''

London Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', 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''. Mikhail's honors include the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, the Knights Foundation grant, the Kresge Fellowship, the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing, and the shortlist of the

Arabic Booker Prize The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) ( ar, الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic ...

. She is the co-founder of the Michigan community-based Mesopotamian Forum for Art and Culture. She currently works as a special lecturer of Arabic at

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

in Michigan.

Bibliography

* (shortlisted for the 2006 International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. ...

) * *''The Iraqi Nights'', Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2014, * ''The Theory of Absence'', Chinese University Press, 2014, * ''The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq,'' translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 2018. . * ''In Her Feminine Sign''. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 2019. * ''The Bird Tattoo.'' Dar al-Rafidain. 2020.

References

External links

Official Web site

Dunya Mikhail interview in Guernica Magazine

Griffin Poetry Prize biography
*
Dunya Mikhail profile on Words Without Borders Web site

Dunya Mikhail interview and reading on National Public Radio (NPR)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikhail, Dunya 1965 births Living people Wayne State University alumni 21st-century Iraqi poets Eastern Catholic poets Iraqi writers Iraqi women writers Writers from Baghdad American writers of Iraqi descent American poets Chaldean Catholics American women poets Iraqi emigrants to the United States 21st-century American poets 20th-century Iraqi poets American Arabic-language poets 21st-century American women writers American Chaldeans