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, St.Louis Film Festival, Brave New Voices International Slam, Button Poetry, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Overture, The Andre De Shields Foundation, and others.


Select Honors & Works

Select Honors & Works

  • 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

  • 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

  • Ramadan Reconciliations, forthcoming, RHINO, 2025

    Bluff, Danez Smith Review, Adroit, 2024

    on hunger & What is the “rule of law”, forthcoming, Michigan Quarterly Review, 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

    Babies on Candy, Illumination Journal, University of Wisconsin Madison, April 2022

    Ammi Jan,Button Poetry, May 2021

    White Washed, Between My Body and The Air—Youth Speaks, Nov 2020

    Flightless Country, Respire Magazine, Sep 2020

    Clock, Button Poetry, Dec 2019

    Mother, Youth Speaks, Sep 2019

LINEBREAKS FESTIVAL

Madison, Wisconsin 2023

LINEBREAKS FESTIVAL

Madison, Wisconsin 2023