• “It is the hurt—and Awad’s bravery in facing it—that lends these poems their remarkable power and vividness.”

    PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW OF OUTSIDE THE JOY

ruth awad headshot by megan leigh barnard

Poet, author, educator

Here’s my bio—feel free to use it when we’re working together:

Ruth Awad is a Lebanese-American disabled poet, a 2021 NEA Poetry fellow, and the author of Outside the Joy (Third Man Books, 2024) and Set to Music a Wildfire (Southern Indiana Review Press, 2017), winner of the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize and the 2018 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. Alongside Rachel Mennies, she is the co-editor of The Familiar Wild: On Dogs and Poetry (Sundress Publications, 2020). She is also the recipient of a 2020 and 2016 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Her work is widely anthologized, most recently appearing in You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limón, and can be found in The Atlantic, AGNI, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Believer, The New Republic, Pleiades, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in poetry from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and she lives and writes in Columbus, Ohio.

On a more personal note

I am always excited about the opportunity to serve our literary community. Most recently, I’ve been a guest poetry editor for Epiphany Magazine and The Journal, and I was the judge for the Kenyon Review’s Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. I’m also a contributing editor for Southern Indiana Review where I curate poetry to feature from each issue.

I’ve led numerous poetry workshops, including at the OSU Young Writers Workshop, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Central New Mexico Community College, and elsewhere. Most recently, I was a visiting professor for the OSU Creative Writing MFA Program. Learn more in my FAQs and find my upcoming events here.

& more personal still:

  • I was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in March 2024, and I’m still figuring out how to navigate the world in this new form. Thanks for your patience if I’m slower to respond than usual!

  • I write a lot about the significance of hair after losing mine to what I now know is lupus. Being a bald woman is a stigmatizing and isolating experience, so if you need someone to talk to or if you want wig recommendations, please feel free to reach out.

  • I’m into my dogs, knitting, crocheting, making jewelry, hoarding jewelry, reading tarot, human and animal rights, and freeing Palestine.

My Books

Change hearts & minds with poetry

Want to book a reading, event, workshop, or lecture? Let’s make it happen.