Rafeif Ismail is an award-winning emerging multilingual writer from Boorloo, WA (colonially known as Perth). Rafeif’s work explores the themes of home, belonging and the so-called ‘Australian’ identity in the 21st century through the lens of a refugee and third culture youth of the Sudanese diaspora.

Rafeif’s work has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across Australia and internationally, with a debut novel forthcoming. Rafeif is the current managing director of Djed Press and a participant in the 2020 AFTRS National Talent Camp and 2021 Equity Foundation Screen Diversity Showcase.

Rafeif learned English by reading comic books and relearned her first language (Sudanese Arabic) through reading poetry. Rafeif saw Black Panther about 28 times in cinema and can stand with the best of them on Doctor Who and Star Trek trivia.

Rafeif sees all forms of art as mediums for change and she committed to creating accessible spaces for young people of marginalised backgrounds in the arts, because, in the words of Arundhati Roy: “there’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

As an emerging multilingual writer, Rafeif is committed to creating stories which explore the rich diversity of this world, hoping that stories everyone can relate to will be available across all mediums.


Publications