Ladan Osman

Photo: Joe Penney

Ladan Osman earned a BA at Otterbein University and an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin as a Michener Center for Writers Fellow. She is the author of Exiles of Eden (2019) and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015). A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been translated into over ten languages.

Spring 2019

Alien Citizen Field Notes: An Introduction

Light-damaged photograph of a man sifting through salt at the mines in Bilma, Niger. PHOTO: Ladan Osman In this lyrical introduction to her Alien Citizen Field Notes project, Ladan Osman challen...
Spring 2019

“And Leaving from the Crowded City”

LEFT The abandoned frame of a sedan. Car frames offer shade and serve as markers of graves as well as failed journeys. RIGHT Vehicles pause during the hottest hours to avoid stressing the...
Spring 2019

Landscape Vertigo

A former driver of migrants holds a peacock feather during his interview in Dirkou. PHOTO: Ladan Osman Traveling on to Dirkou, long a respite town on the desert road to and from Libya, and then...
July 2018

Slaying New Black Notions: Childish Gambino’s “This Is America”

Photo: A still from “This is America” by Childish Gambino Poet Ladan Osman considers how Childish Gambino obliterates rooted acts of black optimism and expression, leading us to underst...