Safia Elhillo (; born December 16, 1990) is a Sudanese-American poet known for her written and spoken poetry. Elhillo received a BA degree from the Gallatin School at New York University and an MFA in poetry from The New School. Elhillo has performed all around the world. She has won acclaim for her work and has been the recipient of several prestigious poetry awards.Elhillo, Safia, "Bio", Safia-Mafia website, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017. Elhillo has shared the stage with notable poets such as Sonia Sanchez and has taught at Split This RockElhillo, Safia, "Safia Elhillo-Poetry", As Us Journal, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2017. and Tin House Summer Workshop.
Early life Elhillo was born on December 16, 1990, in Rockville, Maryland, to Sudanese parents."'Daughters full of all the wrong language'", Newsday, BBC World Service, July 9, 2015. She was raised Muslim.
Career Her poems have appeared in many publications, including Poetry, Callaloo, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day series,Elhillo, Safia, "how to say" at poets.org. among others, and in anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism, and New Daughters of Africa.
Elhillo has shared her work on platforms such as TEDxNewYork,"Performances" , TEDxNewYork."'Alien Suite' | Safia Elhillo | TEDxNewYork", YouTube, January 15, 2015. Under Armour’s Unlike Any campaign,"Lindsey Vonn – Unlike Any". YouTube. the South African State Theatre, the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, and TV1's Verses & Flow and Maleficent journey.
Awards Elhillo has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, receiving special mention for the 2016 Pushcart Prize."Awards & Recognition", One Throne Magazine. She was a co-winner of the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize, won the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, and has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, The Conversation, and SPACE on Ryder Farm, among others. Her collection The January Children won a 2018 Arab American Book Award, receiving the George Ellenbogen Poetry Award,"2018 Arab American Book Award Winners" , Arab American National Museum. the first Sudanese American author to win the award. In 2018, she was also listed in Forbes Africas "30 Under 30" in the Creatives category."Under 30 Creatives" , Forbes Africa, June 4, 2018. Elhillo received a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation."Poetry Foundation Announces 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships", Poetry Foundation, August 28, 2018.
From 2019 to 2021, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. In 2025, Elhillo's Bright Red Fruit was a Michael L. Printz Award honor book.
Works
Full-length collections The January Children (University of Nebraska Press, 2017). Home Is Not A Country (Penguin Random House, 2021). Girls That Never Die: Poems (Penguin Random House, 2022). Bright Red Fruit (Penguin Random House, 2024).
Chapbooks ars poetica (MIEL, 2016) a suite for ol' dirty (MIEL, 2016) Asmarani (Akashic Books, 2016) The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles (Well & Often Press, 2012)
Themes In The January Children, Elhillo explores themes of belonging and identity, particularly in the context of migration and nationality. In "Bright Red Fruit", Elhillo explores the complexities of identity and the longing for love using both verse and narrative.
References
External links Official website "Writer Safia Elhillo talks representation, inspiration, and the heterogeneity of her identity", Council on African Studies, Yale MacMillan Center, November 13, 2017. Poets.org Profile