Sham-e-Ali Nayeem

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem has been invited to speak as a panelist at the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference in Los Angeles at the end of March 2025. The panel she will be speaking on is entitled Of Many Tongues: Diverse Traditions in Anglophone Writing and will primarily be for South Asian writers, writing at the intersection of two or more languages for an English-reading audience. During the session, panelists will present excerpts of their work and discuss whether such work dislocates English from the western hold, bridges the gap toward global literature, or carves out a liminal third. 

The WOO Grant will support Sham-e-Ali with travel and lodging expenses.

Author of the poetry collection, City of Pearls (UpSet Press 2019), Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is a Hyderabadi Muslim American poet, musician, interdisciplinary artist, and recovering social justice lawyer. Her poetry has appeared in Apiary, The Margins, Wildness Journal (Platypus Press), Origins Journal (in partnership with Split This Rock), Dusie and Mizna. Her work can also be found in numerous anthologies, including Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (Olive Branch Press, 2005), Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press, 2005) and Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence (Seal Press, 2008).

She has released two albums, City of Pearls (2019) and the upcoming Moti Ka Sheher (2023), featuring musical interpretations from her book resting in soundscapes ranging from classical rabab to self-composed and produced electronica. Her work explores grief and loss, stories of diasporic Muslim Indian existence, ancestral transmissions, international solidarities and space to imagine. Sham-e-Ali is a recipient of the Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship.