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Feb 27, 2026<\/p>\n
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OU\u2019s Dunya Mikhail selected to serve as Holmes Visiting Professor of Poetry at Princeton this fall<\/p>\n
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Dunya Mikhail, special lecturer of Arabic in Oakland University\u2019s Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and of creative writing in the Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film, will spend the Fall 2026 semester teaching at Princeton University as the Holmes Visiting Professor of Poetry.<\/p>\n
The professorship is an honorary position that invites a distinguished contemporary poet to come to Princeton for one semester to teach a class, give a talk and\/or poetry reading and mentor students on their poetry portfolios.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a significant professional honor and meaningfully supports my ongoing creative work,\u201d Mikhail said, \u201cwhich I believe also reflects positively on our department and Oakland University.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Iraq, Mikhail has devoted much of her career to championing human rights. She immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s, after her writings were deemed subversive by the authoritarian regime in power at the time, and was later honored with the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.<\/p>\n
Mikhail\u2019s award-winning poetry collections include \u201cThe War Works Hard\u201d (winner of PEN\u2019s Translation Fund Award), Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (winner of the Arab American Book Award), \u201cThe Iraqi Nights\u201d (winner of the Poetry Magazine Translation Award) and \u201cIn Her Feminine Sign” (chosen as one of the 10 best poetry books of 2019 by The New York Public Library).<\/p>\n
She has also published two critically acclaimed books, \u201cThe Beekeeper\u201d and \u201cThe Bird Tattoo,\u201d chronicling the plight of Yazidi women in northern Iraq. Her writing has garnered attention from PBS News Hour, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Poetry, among others.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to her time at Princeton, Mikhail expressed enthusiasm about engaging with students and faculty in an intensive creative environment. \u201cI look forward to sharing my work, learning from the Princeton community, and entering into conversations about poetry across languages and cultures,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, teaching and writing are deeply connected acts \u2014 both are ways of listening, witnessing and building bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
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