Dena Igusti is an Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. A 2023 Open City Fellow, they are the coauthor of I Need This to Not Swallow Me Alive (Ginger Bug Press, 2021) and the author of Cut Woman (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2022 Perennial Chapbook Award winner, 2020 Harvard Book Store staff pick, and Entropy’s Best Of 2020-2021. They are the co-playwright of the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater (2023 A is For Playwright Winner). They are the founder of Dearest Mearest.

They are a NYFA Women’s Fund recipient, Queens Art Grant recipient, Culture Push fellow, Sundress Academy for the Arts resident, Best of the Net nominee, Baldwin for the Arts resident, etc. You can read more of their work at their website denaigusti.com.