POETRY

Afra Atiq عفراء عتيق with Paul Blezard

Emirati poet and spoken word artist Dr. Afra Atiq’s commitment to community and the role of art in society shines through her many platforms: academia, philanthropy, social media and poetry. Her Ph.D explored Instagram and the Arab literary ecosystems, while her multilingual poetry, blending English, Arabic, and French, draws on the UAE’s traditions of oral poetry, yet is searingly modern in its foregrounding of gender and power dynamics. She has won the Special Achievement Award at the Arab Women Awards, was named Best Performer for 2015-16 by Rooftop Rhythms, won the 2017 ADMAF Creativity Award and was scheduled to be one of London Book Fair’s Authors of the Day for 2020.