Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet from Bangalore, India. Their debut poetry collection, HUM, won the Backwaters Press Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in October, 2026. It is available for preorder now.
The word “hum” in Urdu can mean both “we” and “I”. In English, it’s a gesture of sound—a vibration. HUM features poems that follow queer, trans, Muslim speaker who grew up in southern India and migrated to the United States, and is a trans call to the beauty of attempt rather than the clarity of arrival.
Sanam has received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Tin House, the Fine Arts Work Center, Brew & Forge, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and The Watering Hole. They currently live in Philadelphia, where they curate The Poets’ Studio at Twelve Gates Arts.
Debutiful is honored to reveal HUM‘s cover, designed by Lindsey M. Welch, along with a Q&A with Sheriff about its creation.
Continue reading “See the cover for HUM by Sanam Sheriff”