Shamma Al Bastaki

Award-winning poet and artist Shamma Al Bastaki was born in Dubai. She graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi with a double major in Sociology and Public Policy and Literature and Creative Writing.

Ambassador for the Louvre Abu Dhabi since 2015, she was selected for the prestigious Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship. Shamma won the 2019 ADMAF Creativity Award for her ethno-poetry collection “Bayt la bayt” (House to House). That collection was excerpted in the Asymptote Journal of Global Contemporary Literature, and taught in universities and schools across Japan, Taiwan, and US. As a poet, she has been commissioned by Louvre Abu Dhabi, the UAE Minister of Tolerance, and was featured on CNN.

She performs on local and international platforms and served for two years on the curatorial committee of “Hekayah” (The Story) program via The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. Moreover, Al Bastaki is an inaugural member of the Cultural Office Women’s Creative Network launched by HH Sheikha Manal Bint Monammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum. She is part of the team at Qasr Al Hosn – DCT Abu Dhabi.