ARTICLE DATEARTICLE AUTHOR AUTHOR EMAIL April 14, 2021
Hajjar Baban’s experience as an immigrant to America exists in all aspects of her work, she says, from “the words that I may obsess over to images that become motifs.”
Baban – who received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2020 and is currently a Master of Fine Arts student in in the University of Virginia’s Creative Writing Program in poetry – was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a merit-based award to support graduate study for immigrants and children of immigrants. Founded by Hungarian immigrants Daisy M. Soros and her late husband Paul Soros, the fellowship program honors the contributions of continuing generations of immigrants in the United States.
Recent UW grad, an Afghan Kurdish poet, wins $90,000 scholarship for immigrants with exceptional potential For news media
Through poetry, Hajjar Baban has found her voice and her calling.
Her chosen field, she says, allows her to “be honest about my understanding of the world while changing and imagining new ways of being.”
Hajjar Baban
The 2020 UW–Madison graduate already has achieved considerable success. She’s now poised for more.
Baban has been named one of 30 recipients of a 2021 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants. She was chosen from a pool of 2,445 applicants, the most in the program’s history.