"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
2024 Awards & Nominated Poetry
** Yalda Award Winner **
& Nominated for Best of the Net 2025
Qafiyah ReviewPoem: On the Night of Invasion 2024, Issue Two
https://www.qafiyahreview.com/micaela-kaibni-raenLink to issue:
Nominated Pushcart Prize 2025
Noor MagazinePoem: Piled Limestone
2024, Inaugural Issue
https://www.noormag.org/read
Direct Link to Poem:
https://www.noormag.org/micaela-kaibni-raen/piled-limestone
https://www.qafiyahreview.com/micaela-kaibni-raen
Brief Publications ListIn PrintAvailable for Purchase
Ask the Night for a DreamPalestinian Writing from the DiasporaEdited by: Susan Muaddi DarrajAnthology, Palestine Writes Press 2024
Heaven Looks Like UsPalestinian PoetryEdited by: George Abraham & Noor HindiAnthology, Haymart Books 2025Anodyne MagazineGermany, Volume Three Summer 2024
Heaven Looks Like Us
Palestinian Poetry
Edited by: George Abraham & Noor Hindi
Anthology, Haymart Books 2025
Anodyne Magazine
Germany, Volume Three Summer 2024
EL GHOURABAA:
A QUEER AND TRANS COLLECTION OF ODDITIES
Metonymy Press 2024
Bombay Gin Literary JournalNaropa University, Autumn 2024https://www.naropa.edu/academics/jks/publications/bombay-gin
Yellow Medicine ReviewA Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought
Poetry, Visual Poetics, and Flash Nonfiction Included, Fall 2024
http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/
http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/
MagmaFrance, November 2024Rabbit PoetryAustralia, Autumn 2024
Art & PoetryAvailable Online Now
Magma
France, November 2024
Rabbit Poetry
Australia, Autumn 2024
Chapter House Indigenous Literary Journal
Visual Poetics The multiple genocides and populations facing violence and starvation has been unbearable to witness and is our call to action. We must all find out place in the struggle for justice and human rights. We will mourn, more than ever before, shedding tears for Palestine, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, Syria, and so many more areas with people struggling to survive disease, starvation and violent attacks. Many are planning protests, performances, teach-ins, letter/email/phone campaigns, community outreach, and more. As we move forward, here is my prayer…
Chapter House Indigenous Literary Journal
Visual Poetics
Visual Poetics
The multiple genocides and populations facing violence and starvation has been unbearable to witness and is our call to action. We must all find out place in the struggle for justice and human rights. We will mourn, more than ever before, shedding tears for Palestine, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, Syria, and so many more areas with people struggling to survive disease, starvation and violent attacks. Many are planning protests, performances, teach-ins, letter/email/phone campaigns, community outreach, and more. As we move forward, here is my prayer…
https://www.thehalacollective.com/blog/time-of-enduring-a-letter-to-my-hala-collective
I post event announcements on IG. In addition, I continue to create and donate, perform, teach and more. So, follow me... @micaelakaibniraen Please find ways to participate for justice so we can stop the violence.
https://www.thehalacollective.com/blog/time-of-enduring-a-letter-to-my-hala-collective
I post event announcements on IG. In addition, I continue to create and donate, perform, teach and more. So, follow me... @micaelakaibniraen Please find ways to participate for justice so we can stop the violence.
The Olive Tree
** PLEASE SHARE ** 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
Where my work is located:
Pg 21 Poem: Genocide
Pg 70 Poem: Atrocious
Pg 72 Artwork: Tatreez Armor Breast Plate
@theolivetreeeditorial
Link to the Olive Tree Anthology:
Writers Resist
Artwork "Death Equals Silence" and Artist Statement
2024, Issue Three
https://www.writersresist.com/2024/06/19/death-equals-silence/
The Olive Tree
** PLEASE SHARE ** 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
** PLEASE SHARE ** 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
Where my work is located:
Pg 21 Poem: Genocide
Pg 70 Poem: Atrocious
Pg 72 Artwork: Tatreez Armor Breast Plate
@theolivetreeeditorial
Link to the Olive Tree Anthology:
Writers Resist
Artwork "Death Equals Silence" and Artist Statement
2024, Issue Three
https://www.writersresist.com/2024/06/19/death-equals-silence/
Koukash Review
2023, Issue Two
https://www.koukash.com/copy-of-home
Rowayat Literary Journal
2023, Issue Seven
https://rowayat.org/accept-the-moon/
https://www.koukash.com/copy-of-home
Rowayat Literary Journal
2023, Issue Seven
https://rowayat.org/accept-the-moon/
Performances Available Online:
Poetry Reading and PresentationSWANA Regional Radio - Podcast on SpotifyOriginally aired on KPFK Los Angeles, NPR on January 7, 2023
Poetry Reading and Presentation on December 10, 2023“Who Remembers?”: Armenian-Palestinian Solidarities: A Reading on YouTube
Pending PublicationVisual Poetics:
Poetry Reading and Presentation
SWANA Regional Radio - Podcast on Spotify
Originally aired on KPFK Los Angeles, NPR on January 7, 2023
Poetry Reading and Presentation on December 10, 2023
“Who Remembers?”: Armenian-Palestinian Solidarities: A Reading on YouTubePending Publication
Visual Poetics:
More Coming Soon
Poetics:
More Coming Soon
Poetics:
More Coming Soon
More Coming Soon
Art:Cover Art for Sinister WisdomSWANA Dykes IssueSummer 2025
Art for Palestine(Art for Mankind) Donated ArtTo be Featured on IG and on website for purchase.
Flash Nonfiction:More Coming Soon
More exciting announcements coming soon!
Micaela Kaibni Raen is a Palestinian American creator, cultural worker, queer femme-dyke, mother, and global Queer/Trans rights activist. She grew up in the Little Arabia community in California and graduated from Chapman University. During that time, she participated in the Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc., ACT UP!, and Queer Nation. She is most known for Queer Tatreez, a style of visual art and poetics inspired by Indigenous Palestinian Tatreez embroidery. She has been awarded the Yalda Award for Poetry as well as nominations for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Her artwork appears in Writer’s Resist; Bombay Gin Literary Journal; Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art & Thought; The Olive Tree; Sinister Wisdom; and Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry published by Haymarket Press.
Her written work has been featured in Bint el Nas; Mizna; Qafiyah Review; Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art & Thought; The Poetry of Arab Women; and El Ghourabaa: A Queer and Trans Arab and Arabophone Anthology; Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora; and Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry.
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
- 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
