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.

  • The cover to Exiles of Eden by Ladan Osman
    Minneapolis. Coffee House Press. 2019. 77 pages. Who is allowed to call themself an American? When a crowd of thousands of white faces shout for an approving President Trump to “Send her back!” in ref...

  • Spring 2019

    A photograph of a human figure bent over at the waist, hands submerged in a shallow pool that appears to be part of a man-made lagoon system. The photo is tinted, violet on the left and blue on the right
    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

    Two photos combined in one image. On the left, a car is buried in sand. On the right, tire tracks running left to right through sand.
    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

    A person, whose face just above the panel, holds a peacock feather erect between his hands
    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

    A still image from the video to Childish Gambino's "This is America," featuring a choir of African-Americans singing on riser as Gambino emerges into the frame from the right
    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...

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