Ni’mah Isma’il Nawwab

Nimah Ismail Nawwab is a Saudi Arabian poet, activist, photographer and writer.

Biography Nimah Ismail Nawwab was born in Malaysia and is of Saudi Arabian descent. She comes from a line of Meccan scholars. Her father is Ismail I. Nawwab, a former professor of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. Nawwab grew up speaking three languages and her father read the Quran, Arabic poetry, and the plays of William Shakespeare to her. Her earliest poetry focused on issues in Palestine and Iraq. Nawwab is the first Saudi woman poet to be published in the United States.

Selections

Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry (Ithaca Press, 2011)