Dunya Mikhail

Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi American poet who writes across Arabic and English. Born in Baghdad, she wrote and translated for the Baghdad Observer before moving to the United States in 1995. She has also taught Arabic in Michigan. New Directions published In Her Feminine Sign in 2019, the first book Mikhail composed in both languages. Its title refers to the Arabic letter taa-marbuta, whose circular form and feminine grammatical function recur as poetic devices. Childhood in Baghdad and life in Detroit meet in a collection concerned with language, place, exile, and time, including a section of Iraqi haiku.