Diya Abbas is a first generation Pakistani poet, performer, and playwright from the Midwest. They were named the 2020 St. Louis Youth Poet Laureate, 2022 George B. Hill Poetry Prize, 2023 Lorine Niedecker Poetry Awardee and the 2024 Lyman S.V. Judson Awardee in the Creative Arts. Diya has written and performed for venues including The Lincoln Center, Sofar Sounds, St.Louis Film Festival, Brave New Voices, Button Poetry, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Overture, The Andre De Shields Foundation, and others.
Select Honors & Works
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I-11, Islamabad, forthcoming, LAKEER Mag, 2025
Organism, THE BRAWL//, //OF EMPHASIS, THE DRUM, forthcoming, Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2025
Ramadan Reconciliations, forthcoming, RHINO, 2025
on hunger & What is the “rule of law”, forthcoming, Michigan Quarterly Review, 2025
Al-Eashiq, Wisconsin People’s & Ideas, 2024
Dead Sea Dance for Sodom, Poetry Daily, Aug 2024
It Ends Before It Begins, diode, July 2024
dreamland, america is the guest room I never settled in, Emerge Literary Journal, Nov 2023
Threading, Adroit, Oct 2023 (nominated for Best New Poets)
Wedding Season, Foglifter Volume 8 Issue 2, Oct 2023
Moon and Sea, Beloved, Feb 2023
The Farmer and The Flood, Dead Sea Dance for Sodom, BAHR Magazine, Nov 2022
collecting words in attempt to keep them the same, The Offing, April 2022
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“Beloved Counterpoetics: A Genealogy of Desire", ARCHIVE History Journal, June 2025
“Syncopating Survival”, NVP, UW Madison, December 2024
Bluff, Danez Smith Review, Adroit, 2024
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2024 Wisconsin People & Ideas Poetry Winner, Madison
2024 Hayden's Ferry Review Poetry Finalist
2024 Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Juston Student Award in the Creative Arts
2023 Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award, Madison
2022 George B. Hill Poetry Prize, University of Wisconsin Madison
2020 Brave New Voice International Poetry Festival Champion, virtual
2019 Brave New Voice International Poetry Festival Champion, Las Vegas
2019 VerbQuake Slam Champion, UrbArts
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2024 Tinhouse Poetry Workshop
2024 Best New Poets Nominee
2024 Rutgers REDI Scholar
2024 Foglifter Guest Editor
2023 Copper Canyon Press Intern
2023 Adroit Poetry Reader
2021-2023 First Wave Touring Ensemble
2020 Saint Louis Public Radio Guest, NPR
2019 St. Louis Youth Poet Laureate
Complicity & witness PSA, instilation
August– October 2024
Located at MaTovu,
St. Louis, Missouri
What comes after identification of complicity & witness? Action.
Creative force should prompt sizable action. Intifada for the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed people.
After we identify the blade on our neck, how do we redirect it to its source?
Reimagine instead of Retell.
Revolution until victory.
LINEBREAKS FESTIVAL
Madison, Wisconsin 2023
LINEBREAKS FESTIVAL
Madison, Wisconsin 2023
