Literature
Dunya Mikhail
born 1965 · poet, journalist, teacher
Iraqi-American poet of The War Works Hard who fled Saddam Hussein's regime, settled in metro Detroit, studied at Wayne State and teaches Arabic at Oakland University.
- Born
Baghdad, Iraq
age 61- Detroit years
- 1996–present
- Field
- Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Mikhail was born in Baghdad and worked as a journalist and literary editor at the Baghdad Observer until her poetry, critical of war and dictatorship, put her on the regime's enemies list. She left Iraq and in the mid-1990s settled in the Detroit area, home to one of the largest Iraqi and Chaldean communities in the United States. She earned an MA in Near Eastern Studies at Wayne State University, co-founded the Mesopotamian Forum for Art and Culture in Michigan, and teaches Arabic at Oakland University in Rochester. Writing in Arabic and English, she published The War Works Hard (2005), which won a PEN translation award, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea and The Beekeeper, a nonfiction book about Yazidi women who escaped ISIS captivity.
Highlights
- The War Works Hard (2005), PEN translation award
- The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq (2018)
- UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing (2001)
- MA in Near Eastern Studies from Wayne State University
- Lecturer in Arabic at Oakland University
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · late 1990s
Wayne State University
She earned her MA in Near Eastern Studies here.
Worked here · 2000s–present
Oakland University
She teaches Arabic here as a special lecturer.