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.

Works By

Preview all
1 Omar Sakr (interviewer), single work interview 'We’re driving up to Wollongong, a dense dose of green on either side of the highway. Michael Mohammed Ahmad, founder and director of Sweatshop – a western Sydney-based literary collective – is yelling as he drives. He’s not mad, that’s just how he talks, at a speed and octave a notch above what most people would find comfortable, but which is normal for an Arab. Siri pipes up, interrupting Mohammed’s stream of thought with rerouted directions, and he yells at her.' (Introduction)
1 y separately published work icon Son of Sin Omar Sakr , South Melbourne : Affirm Press , 2022 23575478 2022 single work novel

'Poet Omar Sakr’s debut novel is a fierce and fantastic force that illuminates the bonds that bind families together as well as what can break them.

'An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark. When every thread in life constricts instead of connects, how do you find a way to breathe? Torn between faith and fear, gossip and gospel, family and friendship, Jamal must find and test the limits of love.

'In this extraordinary work, Omar Sakr deftly weaves a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet’s eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human.' (Publication summary)

1 Jab (Sha’ara) Omar Sakr , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2021; Meanjin , Summer vol. 80 no. 4 2021;

'The TV won’t stop jabbering; even while muted, captions blare. The phone won’t stop prophesying doom; the computer is its own cacophony; the Kindle idles; I move between devices like an old dog desperate for reassurance. Take all the power away and still I can’t turn off—not while an invisible killer is invisibly everywhere, which is a feeling I have had for as long as I can remember. It’s on everyone’s lips, this stupid language. I’m a poet and I shouldn’t be exhausted by what fuels me—speech, where it meets song—yet I long for silence or at least an unexpected sound. Anything other than another day of jabs. The metaphor here is a fist. Line up for your quick, sharp blow. Do not duck or weave. Resist a lifetime of conditioning. It was developed in a lab. Get it at the chemist, or your local GP, or pop-up jab hub. Your life, our lives, depend on it. Copping the hit. Coppers everywhere. On horses, in helicopters, heaped around our houses. You know the ones. Go get jabbed. We don’t have enough fists, we don’t have enough jobs. Everyone is essential. Except for the usual exceptions, of course. You know the ones.' (Introduction)

1 What Distance Burns i "Smoke softens the trees, a swift omen scented before seen.", Omar Sakr , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 432 2021; (p. 33)
1 A Muslim, Christmas i "The streets are empty-ish.", Omar Sakr , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May no. 101 2021;
1 Eye-Bones in Your Throat Omar Sakr , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 80 no. 1 2021;

'I’ve been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, one of the largest book prizes for authors in Australia; the ceremony is on 10 December, and I don’t want to go. You only need to attend one award ceremony to know why they’re best avoided. First, there is the ugly tension in the room, swirling around a cadre of utterly oblivious rich people for whom this is simply a party at which to display their level of sophistication. Then there is the fantasy mantra invariably doled out, by video montage of previous winners, or sometimes in person, that everyone there is a winner, there are no losers.' (Introduction)

1 1 Sex, Drugs and Pork Rolls Winnie Siulolovao Dunn , Stephen Pham , Shirley Le , Omar Sakr , 2021 single work drama multimedia

'On the day that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016, four hood-rats clash in a string of violence, substance abuse and sexual encounters. This is a vivid and compelling portrait of life growing up in Western Sydney. 

'Experienced as a multi-screen installation Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls is an oral storytelling experience from the heartland of multicultural Australia. The four-part monologue weaves together a portrait of young people of colour (POC) growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney. Presented across four screens, live audiences will experience the work from the comfort of a socially-distanced chair while enjoying a complimentary Bánh mì. 

'Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls has been created by a team of extraordinary artists and technicians, all of whom are from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background, infusing the work with depth and authenticity. The work resonates with an astute sense of place, connection and shared experiences of those traversing the tensions and challenges of mixed cultural mores and behaviours with empathy, humour and uncompromising clarity of truth. 

'Written by Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham, Shirley Le and Omar Sakr, with script editing and dramaturgical support from acclaimed author Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Sex, Drugs & Pork Rolls has been crafted for the screen by Helpmann Award winner S.Shakthidharan and performers Hazem Shammas, Emily Havea, Aileen Huynh and Henry Vo.' (Production summary)

1 Factoids i "My mother sits in a stone house and she burns.", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: In Your Hands 2020; (p. 100-101) Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 10 no. 2 2021; (p. 24-26)
1 Fridays in the Park (or How to Make a Boy Holy) i "& I can't help but notice his hips first, bumbag slung low, as the train doors", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry 2020; (p. 145)
1 I Woke up This Morning i "and asked the bird if it feels", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 240 2020; (p. 59)
1 To Be Loved Like This i "I loathe being outside when it rains.", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14-20 November 2020;
1 Relevant to the Day i "After lunch, I decide I have no brothers and sisters, I am", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 14-20 November 2020;
1 Relevant to the Day i "For those who require a pledge", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Anthology 2020; (p. 12-14)
1 y separately published work icon Omar Sakr and Ouyang Yu Omar Sakr (presenter), 2020 19946840 2020 single work podcast
1 Greed, Cruelty, Consumption : The World Is Changed Yet Its Worst Persists Omar Sakr , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 16 August 2020;

'I have no great hope we will use this chance to transform for the better – but this is an unconvincing darkness, and we do not have to stay in it.'

1 1 White Flu Omar Sakr , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: After Australia 2020; (p. 53-76)
1 y separately published work icon Extraordinary Voices for Extraordinary Times EV4ET Omar Sakr (presenter), Ellen van Neerven (presenter), 2020 St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2020 19680679 2020 series - publisher podcast
1 [Y]our People [Y]our Problems i "I have never had a country", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7-13 March 2020;
1 American Dirt i "The once-white lady dipped her hands", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Saturday Paeper , 8-14 February 2020;
1 Iris i "I was told experience mattered.", Omar Sakr , 2020 single work poetry
— Appears in: Griffith Review , February no. 67 2020; (p. 146-147)
X