Black and white photo of Jamal Gabobe, standing at a lectern with two microphones in front of him.

Jamal Gabobe

The poet Jamal Gabobe has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. The Path of Difference is his third poetry book. He has published another book of poetry titled Love and Memory and an Arabic poetry book called Qalb La Yanam. Jamal’s travel essay Termites and Clans was included in the anthology An Ear to the Ground: Presenting Writers from 2 Coasts, published by Cune Press. He was part of the Jack Straw Writers Program and has written on modern Egyptian literature and the Canadian author Margaret Laurence. His article “European Travel Writing on Somaliland: the rhetoric of Empire and the emergence of the Somali subject” was published by Bildhaan Journal at the University of Macalaster.

He is a member of the editorial board for the peer-reviewed ACCESS: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship and is staff at the University of Washington, Tacoma Library. He has campaigned for social justice issues and worked as a journalist for the Somaliland Times until that weekly was banned by the Somaliland government for exposing government corruption. He has taught English, Arabic, and Somali literatures and has a six-year experience as an instructional consultant at the University of Washington’s Center for Teaching and Learning. He is also an advisor to the University of Washington, Tacoma’s Somali Students and received the 2017 student advisor award.

1998 Writers Program