Dana Alsamsam is a sophomore student at DePaul currently studying in the English department, with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in French. Dana is primarily a poet, but has recently been experimenting with short prose works and flash fiction. Dana’s work is influenced by a sense of the places and environments around her—especially the cityscape of Chicago—as well as the people in her life. In her writing she focuses on things that she has a stake in, on both a local and global scale—for instance, coming from a family of Syrian descent she draws upon that identity and writes about her concerns with the political conflicts happening in Syria.
Dana sees writing, and art in general, as a way to influence people positively and to share a unique perspective on what is happening in the world. On a personal level, her writing serves as a means to bring her thoughts, ideas and emotions to life in a concrete way—and as a creative writing student, she sees the writing she is doing now as a process of honing her craft and closing the gap between herself and the writers who influence and inspire her.
Dana is currently working as an undergraduate research assistant for the independent journal Poetry East, edited by Professor Richard Jones. Working with Professor Jones has afforded her insight into the editorial world of professional poetry journals. At Poetry East Dana has done work indexing past issues of the journal, and also made contributions as a consultant for The Poet’s Almanac, a weather app that pairs the day’s current weather with works of poetry that have appeared in Poetry East (the free app is available for iPhone and Android).
Recently, Dana was invited by faculty to read her work at a DePaul-sponsored poetry event. She has had her poems published in Sun & Sandstone—an undergraduate poetry journal at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana—as well as the independent online magazine, Zest Literary Journal.
Click here to visit Dana’s personal blog, featuring her work.
Curated by Anthony Melville
Celebrating Writing at DePaul 