Maryam A. Ghafoor

Maryam A. Ghafoor (she/they) is a queer, Muslim Pakistani-American poet from Illinois. Her debut poetry book, Allah Forgive Us, is a Finalist for the 2027 Miller Williams Poetry Prize from University of Arkansas Press and will be released in March 2027. Her poems appear in journals such as American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Mid-American Review, swamp pink, Pinch, Redivider, and more. She was longlisted for the 2025 Granum Prize. Allah Forgive Us was a finalist for the 2026 AWP Donald Hall Prize, 2025 Wisconsin Poetry Series' Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prize Book Competition, 2025 St. Lawrence Book Award, and a semifinalist for the 2025 Kelsey Street’s QTBIPOC Book Prize. She currently works at Purdue University.

She holds a dual degree BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana and an MFA in Creative Writing from Purdue University. Her Master’s thesis won the inaugural Distinguished Creative Work Award in 2017.