Naomi Shihab Nye

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<p><strong>Naomi Shihab Nye </strong>was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and she spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. She earned her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio. Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent more than forty years traveling the country and the world, leading writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages.</p><p>Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than thirty books. Her books of poetry for adults and young people include <em>19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East</em> (a finalist for the National Book Award); <em>A Maze Me: Poems for Girls</em>; <em>Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners</em>; <em>Honeybee</em> (winner of the Arab American Book Award); <em>Cast Away: Poems of Our Time</em> (one of the <em>Washington Post</em>’s best books of 2020); <em>Come with Me: Poems for a Journey</em>; and <em>Everything Comes</em> <em>Next: Collected and New Poems</em>. Her other volumes of poetry include <em>Red Suitcase</em>; <em>Words Under the Words</em>; <em>Fuel</em>; <em>Transfer</em>; <em>You & Yours</em>; <em>Mint Snowball</em>; and <em>The Tiny Journalist</em>. Her collections of essays include <em>Never in a Hurry</em> and <em>I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven</em>.</p><p>Naomi Shihab Nye has edited nine acclaimed poetry anthologies, including <em>This Same Sky: Poems from</em> <em>Around the World</em>; <em>The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems from the Middle East</em>; <em>Time You Let Me In</em>: <em>25 Poets Under 25</em>; and <em>What Have You Lost? </em>Her picture books include <em>Sitti’s Secrets</em>, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, and her acclaimed fiction includes <em>Habibi</em>; <em>The Turtle of Oman</em> (winner of the Middle East Book Award) and its sequel, <em>The Turtle of Michigan</em> (honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award).</p><p>Naomi Shihab Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, the Robert Creeley Award, and "The Betty," from Poets House, for service to poetry, and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. In 2011 Nye won the Golden Rose Award given by the New England Poetry Club, the oldest poetry-reading series in the country. Her work has been presented on National Public Radio on <em>A Prairie Home Companion</em> and <em>The Writer’s Almanac</em>. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials, including <em>The Language of Life </em>with