Sara M Saleh is a writer/poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants. Her poems, essays and short stories have been published widely and she is co-editor of the ground-breaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity. Her first novel is Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm Press, 2023), which was shortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Awards. Her first poetry collection is The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat (UQP, 2023), which was shortlisted for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal and won the Anne Elder Award.
Sara is the first poet to win both the 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of the inaugural Affirm fellowship for Sweatshop writers, a Neilma Sidney travel grant, Varuna writers residency, and Amant writers residency in Brooklyn, New York, amongst other honours.
Sara is based on Bidjigal land with her partner and their beloved three cats and pup.
