Safia Elhillo ( ar, صافية الحلو; born December 16, 1990) is a Sudanese-American poet known for her written and spoken poetry. Elhillo received a BA degree from the Gallatin School at New York University and an MFA in poetry from The New School. Elhillo has performed all around the world. She has won acclaim for her work and has been the recipient of several prestigious poetry awards.Elhillo, Safia
"Bio"
Safia-Mafia website, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017. Elhillo has shared the stage with notable poets such as Sonia Sanchez and has taught at

Split This Rock {{Short description, American national nonprofit organization of poets, artists, and activists Split This Rock is a national nonprofit organization of poets, artists, and activists based in Washington, D.C. The organization's stated goals are: To ...

. Currently, she is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Early life

Elhillo was born on December 16, 1990, in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

, to Sudanese parents.

Career

Her poems have appeared in many publications, including '' Poetry'', '' Callaloo'', and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day series, among others, and in anthologies including ''The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop'', ''Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism'', and '' New Daughters of Africa''. Elhillo has shared her work on platforms such as TEDxNewYork, Under Armour’s ''Unlike Any'' campaign, the

South African State Theatre The State Theatre in Pretoria, South Africa is the largest theatre complex in Africa. It was known until 1999 as the Pretoria State Theatre. History The theatre was built on the old Market Square in Pretoria for use by TRUK (Transvaal Perfo ...

, the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, and TV1's ''Verses & Flow''.

Awards

Elhillo has been nominated for the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

, receiving special mention for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. She was a co-winner of the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize, won the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, and has received fellowships and residencies from

Cave Canem Beware of the dog (also rendered as Beware of dog) is a warning sign indicating that a dangerous dog is within. Such signs may be placed to deter burglary even if there is no dog. History Warning signs of this sort have been found in Ancien ...

, The Conversation, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, among others. Her collection ''The January Children'' won a 2018 Arab American Book Award, receiving the George Ellenbogen Poetry Award, the first Sudanese American author to win the award. In 2018, she was also listed in '' Forbes Africa''s "30 Under 30" in the Creatives category. Elhillo received a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation."Poetry Foundation Announces 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships"
Poetry Foundation, August 28, 2018.

Works

Full-length collections * ''The January Children'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2017). * ''Home Is Not A Country'' (Penguin Random House, 2021). Chapbooks * ''ars poetica'' (MIEL, 2016) * ''a suite for ol' dirty'' (MIEL, 2016) * ''Asmarani'' (Akashic Books, 2016) * ''The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles'' (Well & Often Press, 2012) Themes In ''The January Children'', Elhillo explores themes of belonging and identity, particularly in the context of migration and nationality.

References

External links

Official website

"Writer Safia Elhillo talks representation, inspiration, and the heterogeneity of her identity"
Council on African Studies, Yale MacMillan Center, November 13, 2017.
Poets.org Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elhillo, Safia Living people 21st-century American women writers American people of Sudanese descent New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study alumni The New School alumni 21st-century American poets 1990 births Sudanese women poets American women poets African-American poets 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century Sudanese poets