“how we create is what we create.”
CYNTHIA DEWI OKA (Dewi) is a writer, facilitator, and strategist with a global perspective who works at the intersection of art, spirit, and strategy to transform complexity into clarity.
Dewi has authored four acclaimed poetry collections: A Tinderbox in Three Acts, published by BOA Editions in 2022; Fire Is Not a Country (2021) and Salvage (2017) published by Northwestern University Press; and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water, published by Thread Makes Blanket in 2016. Among other distinctions, she has been awarded the Amy Clampitt Residency, Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, and the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize.
Dewi earned her MFA at Warren Wilson College, and has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, the University of New Mexico, and The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension. She has been a featured poet on stages across the US, as well as internationally, including The Brooklyn Rail, Busboys and Poets, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, and institutions including Princeton, NYU, and UPenn.
In 2025, she served as Visiting Writer at the Vermont Studio Center and for PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellows. Currently, she is working on screenplays and her memoir.
For fifteen years, Dewi worked in globally oriented, justice-driven organizations and movements. Most recently, she served as Editor-in-Chief of Adi Magazine (2022–2024), which explores international issues through the lens of art and ideas, and as Senior Manager of Global Campaigns at Renaissance3 (2023–2025), an award-winning digital strategy and communications agency that advances democracy, human rights, and more humane economies worldwide.
As a facilitator and strategist, Dewi supports creative individuals and purpose-driven communities to clarify, refine, and renew the stories that guide their endeavors.
Originally born in Bali, Indonesia, Dewi migrated to Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territory when she was 10 years old. She is currently based in Los Angeles, Tongva Land. As an immigrant and former young single mother with working-class roots, her life and work are guided by her core values: self-determination, collaboration, and attention to the peripheral.
She writes to be of service to Mother Earth and future generations.
INTERVIEWS
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Cynthia Dewi Oka. PEN America (2022).
The Shape of Our Shared World: An Interview with Cynthia Dewi Oka. BOA Editions (2022).
Massy Interviews / Cynthia Dewi Oka. Massy Arts (2022).
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Cynthia Dewi Oka. The Rumpus (2021).
Philly Loves Poetry - November 2021, feat. Cynthia Dewi Oka. Moonstone Arts (2021).
“Like a witch in my house”: NJ poet explores dualities of being an immigrant in America. Courier-Post (2021).
Go Away & Come Home. Painted Bride Quarterly’s Slush Pile, Episode 93 (2021).
Cynthia Dewi Oka vs Spectacle. Poetry Foundation’s VS Podcast (2021).
Cynthia Dewi Oka on Migration, Imagination, and the Right to Memory. Sugar Nutmeg Podcast (2021).
Interview: Cynthia Dewi Oka. Buah Zine (2019).
10 Questions for Cynthia Dewi Oka. The Massachusetts Review (2017).