Last year saw the cancellation of the 3rd Annual Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics due to the ongoing pandemic. While we're still unable to gather in person, this year the University of Washington English Department and the Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics are thrilled to host Naomi Shihab Nye on Thursday, April 29, 2021, 5:00-6:30 PM (PT). We are also excited to welcome Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award, who will be in conversation with Naomi following her reading. We're grateful to graduating senior Owen Oliver who will be offering a welcome/land acknowledgment prior to the reading. Please join us for an evening of poetry and conversation with these wonderful writers.

The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. If any accommodations are needed in the completion and submission of this form please contact UW English Department; 206-543-9552; Karla Tofte, ktofte@uw.edu.

All registrants will be entered into a drawing to win one copy of Naomi's and Lena's most recent books.

Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent 40 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry for adults and children include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (a finalist for the National Book Award) , A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, Transfer, You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006), Mint Snowball, Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners, Come with Me: Poems for a Journey, and Honeybee (awarded the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category). Her newest book of poetry is The Tiny Journalist. Her collections of essays include Never in a Hurry, and I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are you Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven. Her fiction books for young people include Habibi, Going Going, There Is No Long Distance Now, and The Turtle of Oman. The Turtle of Oman was chosen a Horn Book Best Book of 2014, a 2015 Notable Children’s Book by the American Library Association, and was awarded the 2015 Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature. Her picture books include Baby Radar, Sitti's Secrets, and Famous. She has also edited several poetry anthologies including I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You, Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps, and What Have You Lost?. Her next book will be Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (Greenwillow, February 2020).

KUOW: Rock star poet sings ‘The Tiny Journalist’ blues (2019)
Christian Science Monitor: This writer’s job: Get young people to see poetry everywhere (2019)
Arab Daily News: Podcast Interview: Naomi Shihab Nye on books, writing and journalism (2014) [audio]
Texas Public Radio: Naomi Shihab Nye Reflects On Ferguson And Gaza (2014) [audio]

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She earned a BA in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington and an MFA in Poetry at the Rainier Writing Workshop of Pacific Lutheran University She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Water & Salt, winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry, and the chapbooks Arab in Newsland (2016) and Letters from the Interior (2019). Her work has been published in journals including Blackbird, Kenyon Review Online, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Poetry Northwest, TriQuarterly, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day feature. Her poems have been widely anthologized and have received the Robert Watson Literary Prize and multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. She is the recipient of a 2019 Artist Trust Fellowship, and has served as the inaugural Poet-In-Residence at Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle. You can learn more about her work at www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com.
“Lemon Blossoms” and “Kaan Loves the Insomniac” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“Let Us Now” and “Future Perfect” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“Mountain, Stone” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“Dialogic” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“A Poem Asks Us Not to Look Away” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“The Poem that Spoke When I Could Not” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“I belong to many places”: A Q&A with Washington State Book Award winner Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
“Poet Lena Khalaf Tuffaha on Her Relationship Status with English: ‘It’s Complicated’”