Episode 01: Dunya Mikhail
Joining us for our first episode is Dunya Mikhail. Dunya discusses her latest collection of poetry In Her Feminine Sign, touching on the art of translation, the use of testimonials and fables in verse, the meaning of home, the plight of Iraqi women in times of political instability and violence, war trauma, and the burden of memories. She describes the experience of returning to Iraq after years of exile to conduct research for her creative nonfiction book The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq.
About Dunya Mikhail:
Iraqi American poet Dunya Mikhail was born in Baghdad and earned a BA at the University of Baghdad. She worked as a translator and journalist for the Baghdad Observer before being placed on Saddam Hussein’s enemies list. She immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s and earned an MA at Wayne State University. Mikhail is the author of several collections of poetry published in Arabic. Mikhail’s honors include the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. She lives in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and has taught at Michigan State University.
Her first book published in English, The War Works Hard (2005), translated by Elizabeth Winslow, won the PEN Translation Award, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and was selected as one of the 25 Best Books of 2005 by the New York Public Library. Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (2009), which Mikhail co-translated with Elizabeth Winslow, won the Arab American Book Award.
