poet, songwriter and novelist who claims herself as a "wandering poet"
D.O.B.: 12th March 1952
P.O.B.: St. Louis Missouri
Personal History
Naomi's father, Aziz Shihab, was a Palestinian Refugee and her mother was American and Swiss decent. Her father also wrote books; A taste of Palestine:Menus and Memories. As a teenager, she lived in Ramallah, Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and in San Antonio, Texas where she graduated in BA English and world religions from Trinity College. Her experience in cultural differences can be seen much in her literary works.
By the age of 6 years old, Naomi began to write poems soon as she learnt how to write. Influenced by her English mother who loves to read, she started writing on childish things like cats, squirrels, friends, teachers, and many more. Most of Naomi's poems are influenced when she visited her grandmother in Palestine.
One of her literary works:
More of Naomi's Poetry:
Different Ways to Pray: Poems. Breitenbush Publications. 1980.
Hugging the Jukebox. Dutton. 1982.
Yellow Glove. Breitenbush Books. 1986.
Red Suitcase: Poems. Consortium Book Sales & Dist. 1994.
Fuel: poems. BOA Editions, Ltd.. 1998.
19 varieties of gazelle: poems of the Middle East. HarperCollins. 2002.
You & yours: poems. BOA Editions, Ltd.. 2005.
Naomi has won so many awards and fellowships, including 4 Pushcart Prizes, the Jane Adams Children's Book Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and many notable book and best book citations from the American Library Association, also, a 2000 Witter Bynner Fellowship. In June 2009, Nye was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.
Naomi told Contemporary Authors: “I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late—there’s that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantime…Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”
Here's Naomi reciting her poem The Rider.
References:
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