Namal Siddiqui is a Pakistani poet, born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. Siddiqui heads the international programme at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and is currently preparing a poetry collection for publication. After a long sabbatical, spending a year on the mountains of Pakistan and another completing her MA in Creative Writing in the UK, Siddiqui has worked within avenues and practices in the UAE that cultivate her love for literature, poetry and performance and help make these art forms accessible to all including lecturing for Creative Writing at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Dubai. Siddiqui’s work explores themes of multicultural identities, decolonisation, and nature. Siddiqui’s poetry is greatly influenced by her travels through mountaineering and intrigue of the South Asian region’s poetic and cultural traditions.

Siddiqui has performed and spoken at regional and international institutions like the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Glass House Festival of Poetry, Expo 2020, Global Citizen Festival, AlSerkal Foundation, Sikka Art Fair, Dastaangoi, Theatre of Digital Arts, NYUAD, University of Birmingham, Delhi Private School, McKinsey & Co and more.