Sudanese by way of Washington D.C., Safia Elhillo is the author of Girls That Never Die, The January Children, Home Is Not a Country, and Bright Red Fruit, and co-editor of the anthology Halal If You Hear Me. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem and Stanford University, and her awards include a California Book Award, the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and an Arab American Book Award. She has been a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the LA Times Book Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Penguin Book of Migration Literature, and The New Yorker, among others. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a co-poetry editor at Callaloo and teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Antioch University.
- Master of Fine Arts (Poetry) - The New School (2015)
- Bachelor of Arts - New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2013)
Poetry Collections:
- Girls That Never Die (One World / Random House, 2022)
- The January Children (University of Nebraska Press, 2017)
Novels in Verse:
- Bright Red Fruit (Make Me a World / Random House, 2024)
- Home Is Not a Country (Make Me a World / Random House, 2021)
Anthologies:
- Halal If You Hear Me (Haymarket, 2019)
- ALA Black Caucus Literary Award for Bright Red Fruit (2025)
- Michael E. Printz Honor Book for Bright Red Fruit (2025)
- LA Times Book Prize finalist for Bright Red Fruit (2025)
- Kirkus Prize finalist for Bright Red Fruit (2024)
- Arab American Book Award for Home Is Not a Country (2022)
- California Book Award for Home Is Not a Country (2022)
- Coretta Scott King Book Awards Author Honor for Home Is Not a Country (2022)
- Longlist, National Book Award for Home Is Not a Country (2021)
- Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards for Halal If You Hear Me (2020)
- Arab American Book Award for The January Children (2018)
- Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 (2018)
- Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship (2018)
- Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for The January Children (2016)
- Special Mention, Pushcart Prize (2016)
- Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2015)