Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1952, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. She received her B.A. from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she still resides with her family. She is the author of numerous books of poems, including 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow Books, 2002), Fuel (1998), Red Suitcase (1994), and Hugging the Jukebox (1982). She has twice traveled to the Middle East and Asia for the United States Information Agency promoting international goodwill through the arts. Nye has received awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Carity Randall prize, and the International Poetry Forum. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various journals and reviews throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. Nye has also written books for children and has edited several anthologies of prose. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her recent book, 19 Varieties of Gazelle, was a finalist last Fall for the National Book Award in the Young Adult Fiction category.