Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press, 2013) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books, 2021). Her poems have appeared in publications including Gulf Coast, The Missouri Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Journal, The Believer, and Beloit Poetry Journal. She has long been fascinated by literature that is preoccupied with mental illness and the existential. Writers she admires, identifies with, and who are perpetually influencing her work include Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. She attempts to dissect, examine, and explore the bipolar experience through her writing. To that end, she is currently working on a series of Sylvia Plath found poems. Nazifa earned her BA in English at the University of Michigan and her MFA at Oregon State University. She lives in Novi, Michigan.