Voices in the Air

has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the I.B. Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, and four Pushcart Prizes. Naomi Shihab Nye lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Her award-winning books include the National Book Award finalist 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems from the Middle East; the Jane Addams Award–winning picture book Sitti’s Secrets; and The Turtle of Oman, which was the recipient of the Arab American Book Award.

She has taught poetry and writing to students of all ages for the past forty years, both in the United States and around the world.

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE is an author, teacher, and wandering poet

Thanks to U2/Bono for streaming “United” on the 2017 Joshua Tree tour.
Thanks to Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai’i, for the best month of our lives.

“Big Bend National Park Says No to All Walls,” “Songbook,” “Next Time Ask More Questions,” “To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri,” and “The Tent” originally appeared on Poets.org. Reprinted by permission of the Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038.
www.poets.org.
“Her Father Still Watching” reprinted by permission of Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. From unpublished chapbook, Dear Doris.

Acknowledgments
Poetry Magazine; Texas Monthly Magazine; Rusted Radishes (Beirut); Massachusetts Review; World Poetry Portfolio (India); Mizna; Washington Square Review; Happiness, The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, edited by Bhikshuni Weisbrot, Darrel Alejandro Holmes, and Elizabeth Lara; Poet Lore; No Tokens; The San Antonio Express-News; San Pedro River Review; The Café Review; Pomelo Books; The Progressive; Plough Quarterly; The MacGuffin

er/documentarian husband—see www.michaelnye.org; forthcoming—his first book from Trinity University Press. (“Unbelievable Things”)
Howard Peacock—Was a lifelong eco-activist and writer who helped create the Big Thicket National Preserve in east Texas—battled many big lumber companies in the process. (“Unbelievable Things”)
Roger Ebert—Famous film critic who lived in Chicago; see Life Itself, a 2014 documentary about his life. (“Unbelievable Things”)
Adriana Corral—Artist of haunting installations, performances, and sculptures, San Antonio, Texas. (“All We Will Not Know”)
Micaela Miranda—Director at the Freedom Theatre, a community theater and cultural project in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine—“Resistance through Art.” (“Loving Working”)
Doris Duke—Heir to great fortune, envisioned Shangri La (Honolulu) when she was 22, worked on it all her life. Collector, philanthropist. (“Her Father Still

Louis. (“Ring”)
John Muir—Born in Scotland, founder of the Sierra Club, hero of American hiking trails, forests, natural preserves, wilderness; don’t miss My First Summer in the Sierra. (“Hummingbird”)
Lyda Rose Martin—Daughter of poet Jenny Browne and photographer Scott Martin. (“Hummingbird”)
M. C. Richards—Educator, creator of pottery and poems, was part of the first “happening” with John Cage; her book Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person was a life-changer. (“Where Do Poets Find Images?”)
Mary Endo—Cut hair in same shop in Honolulu for a really long time. Some of her customers said she was the one person in their lives they could always talk to without shame. (“Barbershop”)
Malala Yousafzai—Youngest person ever to win Nobel Peace Prize; Pakistani activist for justice and female education. Valiantly survived assassination attempt. (“Moment of Relief”)
Michael Nye—My photograph

writer and contemplative speaker who wrote many books including Anam Cara. “When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you.” (“Bowing Candles”)
Van Morrison—Brilliant international music icon for more than 50 years; from Belfast, Northern Ireland. One favorite song: “When Heart is Open” from his Common One album. (“Black Car”)
Frankee Liddy—Resident of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He writes, “I realized I had only 1 life. This is it.” (“Belfast”)
Ryushin Paul Haller—Zen Teacher and former longtime co-abbot at the San Francisco Zen Center. His Dharma Talks, which one may listen to free online, are immense gifts of spirit and wisdom. (“Belfast”)
Jamyla Bolden—Child of Ferguson, Missouri, life cut short by random bullet. (“To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri”)
Carl Allwardt—My maternal grandfather, devout Lutheran, who lived for decades on Union Boulevard in St.