Fargo Tbakhi

Fargo Tbakhi
Born1997 (age 28–29)
Riverside, California, U.S.[1]
Alma materArizona State University
Occupations
  • Writer
  • poet
  • performance artist
Writing career
Genres
Notable workTERROR COUNTER
Notable awardsNational Book Award for Poetry longlist (2025)

Fargo Tbakhi (born 1997) is a Palestinian American writer, poet, and performance artist. His debut poetry collection, TERROR COUNTER (2025), was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry.[1][2][3]

Career and reception

Tbakhi moved to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was 12, and later studied theater at Arizona State University.[4] His one-person show My Father, My Martyr, and Me grew out of his thesis project and was profiled by ASU News in 2020.[4] The performance was later staged at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2022[5] and at Rhizome DC in 2023.[6]

His short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons and Apex Magazine, and his essays and criticism have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and Protean.[7][8][9][10] He is a recipient of the Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Prize.[11]

Deep Vellum published Tbakhi's debut poetry collection, TERROR COUNTER, in 2025.[12] The book was longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry.[3] In its summer 2025 books preview, Vulture highlighted the collection's formal experimentation, including the "Gazan tunnel", and described the poems as seeking a lyric mode beyond reductive political narratives while holding together survival, care, and collective liberation.[13]

Tbakhi's short story "Root Rot" has received critical attention.[14] It was included in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse with series editor John Joseph Adams,[15] and a Strange Horizons review of the anthology called it "the single best piece on offer".[16]

Works

Poetry collections

  • TERROR COUNTER (Deep Vellum, 2025)[12]
  • ANTIGONE. VELOCITY. SALT. (Deep Vellum, forthcoming 2027)[17]

Selected short fiction and essays

  • "12 Worlds Interrupted by the Drone" (Strange Horizons, 2020)[7]
  • "Root Rot" (Apex Magazine, 2021)[8]
  • Dispatches from an Unoccupied Future: Reflections on the Palestine Writes Festival (Los Angeles Review of Books, 2021)[9]
  • "Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide" (Protean, 2023)[10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Fargo Nissim Tbakhi". Hamiltonian Artists. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  2. ↑ "TERROR COUNTER". Deep Vellum. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "2025 National Book Awards Longlist for Poetry". National Book Foundation. September 2025. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Greguska, Emma (February 18, 2020). "Colonize this". ASU News. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  5. ↑ Pugh, Nathan (July 16, 2022). "2022 Capital Fringe Review: My Father, My Martyr, and Me by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi". DC Theater Arts. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Fargo Nissim Tbakhi: My Father, My Martyr, and Me / with special guests niki afsar, Jessica Valoris, leena aboutaleb". Rhizome DC. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  7. 1 2 "12 Worlds Interrupted by the Drone". Strange Horizons. September 14, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Root Rot". Apex Magazine. January 5, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Tbakhi, Fargo (February 5, 2021). "Dispatches from an Unoccupied Future: Reflections on the Palestine Writes Festival". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide". Protean. December 8, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Migration Studies Project hosting second Writing in Displacement series April 10". Penn State University. April 6, 2026. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  12. 1 2 "TERROR COUNTER". Deep Vellum. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Best New Book Releases This Summer: What to Read Next". Vulture. May 30, 2025. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  14. ↑ Brown, Alex (October 7, 2020). "Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction: September 2020". Reactor. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  15. ↑ "2022 Table of Contents". John Joseph Adams. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  16. ↑ Shaw, William (November 28, 2022). "The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 edited by Rebecca Roanhorse". Strange Horizons. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  17. ↑ "Deep Vellum Nominated In Two Categories For National Book Awards Longlist". Deep Vellum. September 16, 2025. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
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