S. J. Ghaus is a Pakistani American poet, educator, illustrator, and cultural worker for the people. Drawing on years of community organizing in national and local movements for justice, they work across genre to dream into decolonial pasts, presents, and futures.

They hold an MFA from Indiana University, where they were awarded the Vera Meyer Strube Academy of American Poets Prize, the Guy Lemmon Award for Public Writing, and the Earl J. S. Ho Award for Teaching of Undergraduate Creative Writing. Most recently, their writing has received support from Tin House and VONA/Voices of Our Nation. You can find their work in print and online in numerous literary magazines, radio programs, and galleries, and they teach at organizations, institutions, and collectives across the country.

S. J. also organizes and facilitates the biweekly online poetry and organizing series in solidarity with Palestine, In Water & Light (@inwaterandlight on Instagram!). They believe in freedom for all colonized people, from every river to every sea.