Kamelya Omayma Youssef

Kamelya Omayma Youssef is a writer from Dearborn, Michigan, with roots in Jibbayn and Shmistar, Lebanon. She is the author of A book with a hole in it (Wendy’s Subway, 2022), winner of the 2020 Carolyn Bush Award.

Her poems and lyric essays have been published online and in print, including in several anthologies, and produced for the theater stage. She develops liberation-oriented creative workshops and pedagogies with her friends.

Youssef earned an MA in English from Wayne State University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. She lives between New York, New York, and Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan.