Edel Ahmed

Biography:

Edel Ahmed is a Somali poet currently living in Alexandria, VA. She started her writing career quietly jotting down words in notebooks during her free time at Ohio Dominican University where she studied Business Administration and minored in Marketing. However, Edel didn’t start sharing her work with the world until after she graduated in 2011. While taking a year off after school to explore her options and figure out her next moves, Edel began to write about her own life experiences as an adult and even began expressing herself politically. Her poems cover topics that range from country and identity to love and heartbreak. As a Somali Muslim immigrant, Edel covers topics such as the migration experience as well as the hardships that occur while growing up in a country that doesn’t always love “the others”.

Edel was first published in Trinity Washington University’s literary journal “The Record” while pursuing her MBA in 2014. She was a contributing writer for Pray Say and Slay, an intersectional site that discusses different topics such as being a women, fashion, spirituality and art. As an author, Edel has published her first collection of poems titled “Cradled In the Horn” in August 2017.

Since moving to the DMV in 2012, Edel has made it a point to perform her pieces at multiple Busboys and Poets locations throughout the area. She enjoys interacting and surrounding herself with other artists alike. She has featured on social media accounts with over twelve thousand viewers combined. Building a community where she is able to help other people understand that we are all more similar than different is what she hopes to achieve. Edel believes that everyone has a story to tell. And she is always ready to lend an ear or two to hear what other people have to say.  

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