AustLit logo

AustLit

Omar Sakr Omar Sakr i(7885306 works by) (a.k.a. Omar J. Sakr)
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Omar Sakr is a multi-awardwinning Arab-Australian writer and poet. His poetry has been widely published in Australia and overseas since the mid-2010s, and his debut collection, These Wild Houses, was released in 2017: it has been shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. His work has also regularly been shortlisted for the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize.

His poems have been published in English, Spanish, and Arabic, and he holds a Creative Writing MA from the University of Sydney.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2020 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships — Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups      $50,000 
2020 winner The Woollahra Digital Literary Award — Poetry for 'Where I Am Not' (on Poem-a-Day, Academy of American Poets).
2018 shortlisted Red Room Poetry Fellowship
VIEW ALL AWARDS

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Lost Arabs St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2019 15423160 2019 selected work poetry

'Visceral and energetic, Omar Sakr’s poetry confronts notions of identity and belonging head-on. Braiding together sexuality and divinity, conflict and redemption, The Lost Arabs is a seething, urgent collection from a distinctive new voice.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
2020 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Poetry
2020 shortlisted Colin Roderick Award
2020 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Multicultural NSW
2020 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — John Bray Poetry Award
2019 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Judith Wright Calanthe Award
America, You Sexy Fuck i "You’re wearing your prettiest dress:", 2017 single work poetry
— Appears in: 20 Poets : Selected Poems, Cordite Books Series 1 & 2 2017; (p. 100-101)
2014 shortlisted The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize
y separately published work icon These Wild Houses Melbourne : Cordite Press , 2017 10757466 2017 selected work poetry

'I won’t keep you long. First, I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, on whose land the majority of this collection was written.

'Now you are about to read the poetry of an Arab Australian, which is a rare thing when it shouldn’t be. Now you are about to read the work of a queer Arab Australian, which is a rare thing when it shouldn’t be. Now you are about to read the life of a queer Muslim Arab Australian from Western Sydney, from a broke and broken family – not rare, but it should be.

'This is not a definitive statement on Islam. This is not a definitive statement on Arab identity, not Arab Australian identity, not bisexuality, not even Western Sydney. It is a statement – an exploration of me and what I’ve seen.

'The only thing I ask of you is that you do not stop with me. Discover the other diverse writers and poets in this country – find us, find our books. We’re here, and we’re growing.' (Publication summary)
2017 commended Anne Elder Award
2018 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
2017 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Judith Wright Calanthe Award
VIEW ALL AWARDS
Last amended 4 Jun 2020 08:58:06
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X