Safia Elhillo is a Sudanese American poet, author and educator whose work explores questions of identity, migration, memory and belonging. She is the author of The January Children, Girls That Never Die, Home Is Not A Country and Bright Red Fruit, and her poetry has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Callaloo and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day series, as well as numerous anthologies.
A recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Cave Canem and Stanford University’s Wallace Stegner Fellowship, Safia received the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and was named to Forbes Africa’s 2018 “30 Under 30” list. With Fatimah Asghar, she co-edited Halal If You Hear Me, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
Safia’s work has been translated into multiple languages and commissioned by organizations including Under Armour, Cuyana and the Bavarian State Ballet. Through poetry and teaching, she brings a distinctive voice to conversations about culture, displacement and the complexities of home.
