Tarik Dobbs

Tarik Dobbs
Tarik Dobbs seated and looking into the distance
Dobbs at the 2025 AWP Conference
Born1997 (age 28–29)
Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater
Occupations
  • poet
  • editor
Writing career
GenrePoetry
Notable workNazar Boy
Notable awards

Tarik Dobbs (طارق دبس; born 1997) is an Arab American poet and editor.[1][2] He is the author of Nazar Boy, which received the 2026 GLCA New Writers Award for Poetry.[3][4] In 2022, Dobbs was named a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.[5]

Early life and education

Dobbs was born in Dearborn, Michigan, and studied art at the University of Michigan, where he earned a B.A. and a B.G.S. He later received M.F.A. degrees from the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University.[6][7][8]

Career

Dobbs is an assistant professor of English in creative writing at Southwest Minnesota State University.[8][9] His chapbook Dancing on the Tarmac was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for Yemassee's 2020 Poetry Chapbook Prize and was published in 2021.[10][11][12] Dobbs's first full-length collection, Nazar Boy, was published by Haymarket Books in 2024 and was taught at Wesleyan University.[4][8][13]

Dobbs has guest edited for Mizna and is chief executive officer of Poetry Online, a literary nonprofit focused on accessibility.[14][15][16]

Disability is a recurring subject in Dobbs's work and editorial practice.[17] In 2022, he curated Zoeglossia's Poem of the Week series "The Personal & Political Archive", which focused on disability and archives.[17] Dobbs's poem "Poem Where Every Bird Is a Drone" appears in Poetry Foundation's Disability Poetics collection.[18] In a 2024 article, Faiza Mahfouf read the poem as linking genocide and ecocide.[19]

In 2026, Dobbs was included in the Palais de Tokyo exhibition Cheryl Marie Wade, the Queen-Mother of Gnarly, a disability arts exhibit honoring activist Cheryl Marie Wade.[20]

Personal life

Dobbs is gay and has Poland syndrome.[21][1]

Works

Books

  • Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books, 2024)[4][1]
  • Dearbornistan (Haymarket Books, forthcoming)[8]

Chapbooks

  • Dancing on the Tarmac (Yemassee, 2021); selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi[10][11][12]

Selected poems

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tarik Dobbs". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  2. ↑ "ZGP#47 Tarik Dobbs". Zoeglossia. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  3. ↑ "GLCA Announces 2026 Winners of the New Writers Award". Great Lakes Colleges Association. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "Nazar Boy". Haymarket Books. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Poetry Foundation Announces the 2022 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows". Poetry Foundation. September 22, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Hopwood Awards Ceremony" (PDF). University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. April 12, 2023. p. 21. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  7. ↑ "MFA Student Spotlight Interview with Tarik Dobbs". College of Liberal Arts. University of Minnesota. April 26, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Tarik Dobbs". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Tarik Dobbs". Southwest Minnesota State University. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Tarik Dobbs". American Poetry Review. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  11. 1 2 "2020 Contest Updates". Yemassee. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  12. 1 2 Lassell, Daniel. "Dancing on the Tarmac by Tarik Dobbs. Reviewed by Daniel Lassell". Diode Poetry Journal. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Techniques of Poetry: Prosody and Poetic Form (ENGL 216)". Wesleyan University Course Catalog. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Mizna 22.2: The Experimental Issue". Mizna. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Poetry Online - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  16. ↑ "About Us". Poetry Online. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  17. 1 2 "Curatorial Statement by Tarik Dobbs". Zoeglossia. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Disability Poetics". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  19. 1 2 Mahfouf, Faiza (May 24, 2024). "On Indigeneity and Sumud: "Permission to Narrate" Genocide and Ecocide in Tarik Dobbs's "Poem Where Every Bird Is a Drone" (2021)". Psychology and Education. 61 (5). Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Cheryl Marie Wade, the Queen-Mother of Gnarly". Palais de Tokyo. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  21. ↑ Mack, David (March 21, 2020). "A Guy Got Tested For The Coronavirus, Then A Stranger On Grindr Came To His Rescue". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Poem Where Every Bird Is a Drone". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  23. ↑ "torrin a. greathouse reads "Poem Where Every Bird Is a Drone" by Tarik Dobbs". Poetry Foundation. May 17, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
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