Publications

"Our grandmothers' tears of Tatreez live on through us. Tatreez will always hold hope, tears and sumud...our cultural inheritance. Their gift to us for the enduring. We are more than fierce grief...we are ancestral indigeneities in human form dreamed into being by our ancestors. We were formed by dreams, sand and stardust but we are shaped by love.

We are poetry. We are Palestine."

-- Micaela Kaibni Raen

 Awards & Nominated Poetry

** Yalda Award Winner **

& Nominated for Best of the Net

Qafiyah Review

Poem: On the Night of Invasion 

2024, Issue Two

https://www.qafiyahreview.com/micaela-kaibni-raen

Link to issue:

https://www.qafiyahreview.com/sumac-issue-2

Nominated Pushcart Prize 

Noor Magazine

Poem: Piled Limestone 

2024, Inaugural Issue

https://www.noormag.org/read

Direct Link to Poem:

https://www.noormag.org/micaela-kaibni-raen/piled-limestone

 Brief Publications List
In Print
Available for Purchase

Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora
Edited by: Susan Muaddi Darraj

Anthology, Palestine Writes Press 2024
Palestinian Writes Press Order Link

Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry
Edited by: George Abraham & Noor Hindi
Anthology, Haymarket Books 2025
Haymarket Pre-order Link

Anodyne Magazine
Germany, Volume Three Summer 2024
https://anodynemag.com/vol3/

EL GHOURABAA:A QUEER AND TRANS COLLECTION OF ODDITIES
Edited by: Samia Marshy and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Metonymy Press 2024

https://metonymypress.com/shop/books/el-ghourabaa-queer-trans-oddities/

Bombay Gin Literary Journal
Naropa University, Autumn 2024
https://www.naropa.edu/academics/jks/publications/bombay-ginCatalyst

Catalyst Literary Arts Journal
New Zealand, December 2024
https://catalystnz.blogspot.com/

Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought
Poetry, Visual Poetics, and Flash Nonfiction Included, Fall 2024
http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/

Magma
France, November 2024
https://magmapoetry.com/

Rabbit Poetry
Australia, Autumn 2024
https://rabbitpoetry.com/

Art & Poetry

Available Online Now

Return to Roots: Writing Toward Land
The Dodge: A special teaching issue on Palestine and the Global Indigenous Struggle.
Visual Art with customized curriculum.
Print edition: May 2026

Online edition is available now at https://thedodgemag.com/return-to-roots/rafah-queer-tatreez/

Radical Catalyst Journal
Resisting Authoritarian Issue
My work is on page 12 of the July 2025 issue.
https://radicalcatalystjournal.org/issue1_1.html

Tendrils Literary Journal
A print publication as well as a highly competitive and curated online journal, has published visual poetics that questions...what happens to us when we can no longer hear the whispers of the poppies? The artwork in the poem is vividly stunning and references trauma, tears, and sumud.
Link to my work in the issue:
https://www.tendrilsjournal.com/issue1-trauma-and-the-body#whispers

Ultramarine Literary Review

My artwork in a beautiful Chilean magazine. Title: “Last Flight Home.” The artwork speaks to the global loss of life in Queer/Trans communities. Most of us surviving without basic human rights.
https://www.ultramarinereview.com/art-and-photography?pgid=m49781cs-29f9a094-8cc5-4693-a4c4-4b56e2409945

Chapter House Indigenous Literary Journal
Visual Poetics
https://chjournal.com/micaela-raen

Koukash Review

2023, Issue Two
https://www.koukash.com/issue2/woodcutters-and-waiters

Rowayat Literary Journal
2023, Issue Seven
https://rowayat.org/accept-the-moon/

Global Genocides & Health Catastrophes

With violent genocides and forced starvation affecting so many communities, we are called to witness and to take action. 

HALA Collective Blog 2025 - No "Happy in Pride" for 2025
https://www.thehalacollective.com/blog/time-of-enduring-a-letter-to-my-hala-collective

HALA Collective Blog 2024 "A Time of Enduring"
https://www.thehalacollective.com/blog/time-of-enduring-a-letter-to-my-hala-collective

The Olive Tree - Soon to be re-released as a zine. The Olive Tree: An international collection of art protesting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians is now available online. Proud to be a part of this beautiful collection of creative work. It will break your heart and give you hope. It is a deeply spiritual search for justice and a sacred honoring of the Palestinian people through art and literature. Thank you students for your activism. #studentintifada

Poem: Genocide
Poem: Atrocious
Artwork: Tatreez Armor Breast Plate
@theolivetreeeditorial

Writers Resist
Artwork "Death Equals Silence" and Artist Statement
2024, Issue Three
https://www.writersresist.com/2024/06/19/death-equals-silence/

Performances Available Online

Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora

Palestinian Museum U.S., February 16, 2025

Link the to Event - Available to watch now on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y8K0x6HPaA&list=PLhervyCf8iV5PetlP0A5Dl7315-pmm7PV&index=2

Poetry Reading and Presentation

SWANA Regional Radio - Podcast on Spotify

Originally aired on KPFK Los Angeles, NPR on January 7, 2023

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2GBYDF5uAeMr1ryDYrsbBt?si=JCCmwDuVQImP9U3eXiLOsg

“Who Remembers?”: Armenian-Palestinian Solidarities: A Reading on YouTube

Poetry Reading and Presentation on December 10, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA8X3_2TKIQ&list=WL&index=28&t=2505s

More vids are available on my YouTube channel:

Pending Publications

Anthologies

The Poetry of Arab Women:
A Contemporary Anthology

25th Anniversary Edition
Interlink Publishing
Poetry
Pending 2026

Homosexual Intifada
Interlink Publishing
Visual Poetics
Pending May 2026

Olive Tree Editorial Zine
Poetry and Visual Art
Pending 2026

Sinister Wisdom (Trade Book)
SWANA Dykes Issue 

Cover Art & Artist Statement
Pending 2026

Act UP! Beyond New York
Haymarket Books
Memoir Essay
Pending 2027
 

Journals/Magazines

Black Warrior Review
Visual Poetics
Pending Spring 2026

Sinister Wisdom (Issue)

SWANA Dykes Issue 
Cover Art & Artist Statement
Pending 2026

More exciting announcements coming soon!

Micaela Kaibni Raen is a queer Palestinian American mother from the Little Arabia community in California. She has been recognized by the Lesbian Herstory Archives for her activism and is the creator of Queer Tatreez, a style of visual art and poetics inspired by Indigenous Palestinian embroidery. A Tin House Alum, her work is featured in Bint el Nas; Mizna; The Poetry of Arab Women; Yellow Medicine Review; Heaven Looks Like Us; and Homosexual Intifada. With visual artwork showcased by Black Warrior Review, Sinister Wisdom, FananaMke, Resistance at A.R.T./New York, and Protea Gallery in Los Angeles.

Socials:
Web Site: https://micaelakaibniraen.blogspot.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/micaelakaibniraen
IG: @micaelakaibniraen

Past Publications (Brief List)

Anthologies:

• A Kiss is Just a Kiss, Tall Grass Writers Guild, Baker & Taylor Publishing, Summer 2001
• A Different Path: An Anthology of the Radius of Arab American Writers, Ed. D. H. Melhem & Leila Diab, Ridgeway Press, 2000
• The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, Ed. Nathalie Handal, Interlink Publishing, 2000

Journals.Magazines:

• Yellow Medicine Review,, “The Ancestors We Were Looking for We Have Become: International Queer Indigenous Voices,” edited by Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Fall 2010
• Mizna Literary Journal, 2014
• Tagg Magazine, Features Author and Contributor, 2013 – 2015
• 2000-2003: Bint el Nas; Ahbab Magazine, Chronogram: The Hudson Valley Arts Magazine

                                           

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