Said Shaiye is an Autistic + ADHD (AuHD) Somali Writer & Photographer in Minneapolis. He is a 2024 MacDowell Colony Fellow as well as a 2023 AWP Panelist: Autistic Writers On The Inaccessibility Of Professional Writing Spaces (Organizer, Participant); The Anti-Ableist Writing Workshop (Participant).He was awarded a 2024 MN State Arts Education Grant to lead a BIPOC autistic writing workshop, allowing autistic writers to strengthen their skills in a safe space. Group members publish their own books at year's end.He was nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize by Indiana Review for his essay SNEAK A UZI ON THE ISLAND IN MY ARMY JACKET LINING. His debut book, Are You Borg Now?, was a 2022 Minnesota Book Award Finalist in Creative Nonfiction & Memoir.He has published poetry & prose in Indiana Review, Texas Review, Obsidian, Brittle Paper, Pithead Chapel, 580 Split, Entropy, Diagram, and elsewhere. He teaches writing at several community colleges in the Twin Cities, as well as with Unrestricted Interest, an organization dedicated to Neurodivergent ways of being.

He is represented by Mariah Stovall at Trellis Literary Management.

Website: www.saidshaiye.com

Publications

• ARE YOU BORG NOW? , Really Serious Literature (May 22, 2021)

Awards

• MacDowell Fellow(2024)
• MN State Arts Board Grantee(2024)
• Minnesota Book Award Finalist(2022)

Employment

• Adjunct English Professor at Minnesota State Colleges & Universities (August 2022 - )

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Poetry & Nonfiction from n/a (May 2022)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Children's literature , Poetry