Nadia Niaz is a writer, editor and academic ‘from’ Melbourne via Pakistan and many other places. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and Cultural studies and has taught poetry and creative writing to everyone from pre-schoolers to postgraduates.

Nadia is the founder and editor of the Australia Council-funded Australian Multilingual Writing Project, an online journal publishing creative writing that mixes two or more languages. Nadia writes and performs poetry that explores questions of identity, belonging, and language. Her book, The Djinn Hunters, is available from Rabbit.

Nadia enjoys working collaboratively with other poets and artists and is committed to creating opportunities for emerging writers in Australia.

Major projects & commissions

• The Djinn Hunters, Rabbit Poets Series No. 19, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Melbourne, 2023

• Featured Poet in Poetry in the City of Literature showcase, Melbourne City of Literature 2023

• Editing The Circular, Issue 33, Sydney Review of Books, 2022

• Editor for City of Greater Dandenong’s HOME Exhibition 2020

• Writer for Melbourne City of Literature’s ‘Summer in the City of Literature’ series 2020

• Editor and founder of the Australian Multilingual Writing Project, online journal of multilingual writing

• Curated Australian Multilingual Writing Project Showcase at Generations Festival at Immigration Museum, hosted by Multicultural Arts Victoria, October 26, 2019

• Curated a special issue of the AMWP for Emerging Writers Festival Digital Stream

• Featured writer for these words exhibition at Kings Artist-Run gallery, June 1-22 2019

• Commissioned poet for the University of Melbourne Body Donor Program Annual Commemorative Thanksgiving Service, October 2017

• Translation of seven poems from English into Urdu for One in Three: Poetry Corners print publication, supported by the Hume City Council, March 8, 2017

• ‘My Australias’, research-based practice (poetry), presented at the InASA Conference: Reimagining Australia, Fremantle, December 2016

Poetry

• The Djinn Hunters, Rabbit Poets Series No. 19, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Melbourne, 2023

• ‘August in Lahore’, poem (reprint), Not Very Quiet: The Anthology, Recent Work Press, 2021

• ‘To Catch a Djinn: A ghazal for my Dadi and her sisters’, Usawa Literary Review, Issue 3, 2020

• ‘Fire Ghazal’ and ‘Summer Gestures Towards a Ghazal’, Summer in the City of Literature, Melbourne City of Literature 2020

• ‘I sing’, poem, in The Polyglot Issue 5: Unfaithful, November 2019

• ‘August in Lahore’, poem, in Not Very Quiet Issue 4: Performing Gender, March 2019

• ‘A Map of Mothers’ poem, in Rabbit Poetry Journal 26: Belonging, December 2018

• ‘Handi’, poem in Pencilled-In 3, June 2018

• ‘My Grandmother’s Language’, poem, in Peril 31: I Can’t Speak to You, August 2017

• ‘White Fright’, poem, in The Sum Times, Summer 2016

• ‘Eid is Another Country’, poem, in Offset Arts Journal, Victoria University, October 2016

• ‘The Compliment’, poem, in tremble, the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize anthology (longlist), September 2016

• ‘Living Space’ (poem), April/May 2008, in Strange 4

• ‘Stargazing’ (poem) Spring 2005 in the Alhamra Literary Review, Issue 1

Reviews & prose

• Review of Michelle Cahill’s The Herring Lass, in Mascara Literary Review, Issue 20, April 2017

• Review Short: Elif Sezen’s Universal Mother, in Cordite Poetry Review, 03 April 2017

• Review Short: Ken Canning/Burraga Gutya’s Yimbama, in Cordite Poetry Review, 20 July 2015

• Review of David Brooks’s Open House in Mascara Literary Review Issue 17, April 2015

• ‘The Wandering Writer’, book review for TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Vol 18, No 2, October 2014

• ‘A Layer of Cloth’ (short story), April/May 2008, in Strange 4