Saakshi Patel is a Bombay-born, Vancouver-based poet and educator.

She is currently making poems at The Writer's Studio by Simon Fraser University’s School of Continuing Studies. Most of her work centres around a longing for stillness and a sense of home, explored through her intercontinental migration, identity crisis and the sheer loneliness brought about by her movement between Bombay and Vancouver over the last ten years. Poems are her means of navigating the landscapes of these diverse cities and her conflicting emotions.

Saakshi earned an MA in Poetry with Distinction from Queen's University Belfast, where she was awarded the Seamus Heaney Centre International Scholarship, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award and the John Hewitt International Summer School Bursary. She is also a two-time Runner-Up of the Central Avenue Poetry Prize. Saakshi got her BA in English Literature and Language from the University of British Columbia. She has taught courses in poetry, short fiction and academic writing in Vancouver colleges.

Saakshi’s poems have been anthologised in print in The Central Avenue Poetry Prize Anthology (2027 and 2024), the "Washing Windows" series by Arlen House (2025, ’24, ’23 and ’22), in "The Best Asian Poetry 2021-22" by Kitaab, in "Local Wonders" by Dedalus Press, and in "AHVAZ//AAVAZ//AVAAZ", a chapbook by the League of Canadian Poets. Her poetry has also appeared in Catatonic Daughters literary magazine, The Honest Ulsterman and yolk literary journal. She was featured as an emerging female poet of colour in "Breaking Ground Ireland", a project by the Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

Saakshi has performed poetry readings at Enabling Arts and Container Brewing in Vancouver, the Northern Soul Roadshow by the Irish Writers Centre, the Installation Ceremony of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast, the Music and Mind Festival, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award-Winner Showcase, on Poetry Day Ireland and at the Habitat Cafe in Bombay.