Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye lived in St. Louis, Missouri until she was a teenager and her family moved to the Middle East for a year and then back to the U.S.A. but not back to Missouri. Her current homae is Texas.

She loved reading as a kid. Some of her favorite authors were Margaret Wise Brown, Louisa May Alcott, and Carl Sandburg.

In what is now called Jerusalem but was then called Jordan her family was living near Arab relatives. After a year in the Middle East her family came to Texas. This is where she currently lives.

These are her words on the subject of her favorite authors. "I could name so many ‘favorite writers’ of any era of my life- Henry David Thoreau got me through high school and Jack Kerouac through college. The poems of William Stafford have deepened my life since I was 15. The poems of W. S. Merwin gave me daily inspiration. The poems of contemporary women say, ‘You will never be alone!’"

She now has a husband and a son and is a citizen of Texas.