Zena Agha is a Palestinian-Iraqi writer, poet and organiser from London. Her work explores identity, immigration, space and life in the diaspora. Zena’s poems have been translated and published internationally and she has performed at universities and festivals around the US, UK and France.

Zena founded Warwick University’s largest poetry collective, Shoot from the Lip, and has delivered two TEDx talks, both under the banner of identity. Media credits include the BBC World Service, BBC Arabic, NPR, El País, The Independent, The Nation and The Economist. Her short film ‘Little Jerusalem’ was officially selected for the Miami Independent Film Festival and the Boston Palestine Film Festival.

Shortlisted for the London Mayor’s Young Person’s Peace Prize, Zena previously worked at the Iraqi Embassy in France, the Palestinian delegation at UNESCO, the UK Houses of Parliament and Operation Black Vote.

Zena graduated with a first in history and politics from Warwick University with a year at Sciences Po Paris. She was awarded the Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University, completing her Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies.

Zena was a summer fellow at Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab in 2017 and is an Open Access Fellow at Harvard Library.

Zena is currently the US Policy Fellow for Al-Shabaka; The Palestinian Policy Network and a Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop. She lives in New York City.