Dunya Mikhail

Dunya Mikhail (born 19 March, 1965 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi-American poet based in the United States.

Life She was born and raised in Iraq to an ethnic Assyrian Chaldean-Catholic family. She graduated with a BA from the University of Baghdad.

Mikhail worked as a journalist, as editor of the literary section, and as a translator for The Baghdad Observer. 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.

In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, Her poetry has appeared in Poetry International, Modern Poetry in Translation, the London Times, 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, 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. 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 in Michigan.