Naomi Shihab Nye
1952–
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
A Palestinian-American poet of tenderness and attention, Nye writes of her father's lost Palestine and of the small exchanges that keep people human.
Naomi Shihab Nye was born in 1952 in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father — the journalist Aziz Shihab — and an American mother. She spent part of her adolescence in Jerusalem, in the years just before 1967, and grew up between Ferguson, Missouri, and San Antonio, Texas, where she has lived most of her adult life.
Across more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and children’s literature, Nye has written about her Palestinian inheritance with tenderness and precision — poems like “Kindness,” and collections such as 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, written partly in response to the suspicion cast on Arab Americans after 11 September 2001. She has served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Selected works
- Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (1995)
- 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (2002)
- The Tiny Journalist (2019)
- Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020)
Sources
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Explore selected poems, essays, and biographical material on the linked source.
Explore Naomi Shihab NyeConnected in the archive
13 connected records13 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
written by them — 3 records
- Blood
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "naomi-shihab-nye" → Naomi Shihab Nye
- Gate A-4
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "naomi-shihab-nye" → Naomi Shihab Nye
- Morning Song
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "naomi-shihab-nye" → Naomi Shihab Nye
names this person — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- A Mountainous Journey: A Poet's Autobiography
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Kenny's prose translation carries the life; Naomi Shihab Nye's translations of the poems are set into it, so the verse arrives at the point in the life where it was written.
- Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Kelley, alongside Palestinian American writers and activists such as Huwaida Arraf, Noura Erakat, Remi Kanazi, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Randa Jarrar.
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Jerusalemالقدس
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: She spent part of her adolescence in Jerusalem, in the years just before 1967, and grew up between Ferguson, Missouri, and San Antonio, Texas, where she has lived most of her adult life.
on a related subject — 7 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- George Abraham
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Palestinian-American", "diaspora", "poetry".
- Hala Alyan
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Palestinian-American", "diaspora", "poetry".
- Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Palestinian-American", "diaspora", "poetry".
- Suheir Hammadسهير حماد
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Palestinian-American", "diaspora".
- Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "diaspora".
- Enter Ghost
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "diaspora".
- and 1 more
Cite this page
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- Chicago
“Naomi Shihab Nye.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/poetry/naomi-shihab-nye.- MLA
“Naomi Shihab Nye.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/poetry/naomi-shihab-nye. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-naomi-shihab-nye, title = {Naomi Shihab Nye}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/poetry/naomi-shihab-nye}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }