Dujie Tahat

Photo by Troy Osaki

Dujie Tahat is a poet and critic living and working in Washington state. They are the author of three poetry chapbooks: Here I Am O My God, selected for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship; Salat, winner of the Tupelo Press Sunken Garden Chapbook Award and longlisted for the 2020 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection; and Balikbayan, finalist for The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest and the Center for Book Arts honoree.

Dujie has earned fellowships from the National Book Critics Circle, Hugo House, Jack Straw Writing Program, and the Poetry Incubator, as well as scholarships from Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Along with Luther Hughes and Gabrielle Bates, they cohost The Poet Salon podcast. Dujie serves as Critic-at-Large for Poetry Northwest and poetry editor for Moss. They got their start as a Seattle Poetry Slam Finalist, a collegiate grand slam champion, and Seattle Youth Speaks Grand Slam Champion, representing Seattle at HBO’s Brave New Voices.

Inauguration Ceremony

To mark the tenth year of the Seattle Civic Poet program, we hosted the first-ever Seattle Civic Poet inauguration ceremony, marking the commencement of a new two-year term for the fifth Seattle Civic Poet, Dujie Tahat. 

Speakers:

• Gülgün Kayim, Director, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Director
• Tom Fay, Head Librarian, Seattle Public Library Head Librarian
• José Luis Montero, Board President, Seattle City of Literature
• Shin Yu Pai, 2023-24 Seattle Civic Poet
• Dujie Tahat, 2025-26 Seattle Civic Poet

Hosted in partnership with the Seattle Public Library and Seattle City of Literature.

Media Coverage

• Northwest Asian Weekly - Dujie Tahat merges politics and poetry as Seattle’s newest Civic Poet
• KUOW Soundside - Seattle's new Civic Poet finds parallels between political language and verse
• South Seattle Emerald - Meet Your New Seattle Civic Poet, Dujie Tahat
• The Stranger - I Must Insist That I Am Real
• Real Change News - “We can sit in a shared language.”