Samiya Bashir

Samiya Bashir is the author of "Gospel" and "Where the Apple Falls", a finalist for the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. Bashir edited two groundbreaking anthologies: "Best Black Women’s Erotica 2" and "Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art". She has published three chapbook poetry collections: "Wearing Shorts on the First Day of Spring", "American Visa" and "Teasing Crow". Bashir is a founding organizer of Fire & Ink, a writers festival for LGBT writers of African descent, and is an alumni fellow of Cave Canem: African American Poetry Workshop/Retreat. She has served as James Cody Scholar for the James Dick Foundation for the Arts and as Writer in Residence at SoulMountain; Bashir is currently Artist in Residence with The Austin Project. Her poetry, stories, articles, essays and editorial work have been widely published.

Join us as we discuss her latest book "Gospel" an ecumenical resistance song in four parts. We enter at the crossroads, tripped up by trickster deity Eshu-Elegba. A chorus of crows, led by Norse god Odin’s raven messengers Hugin & Munin, guides us into each movement. In this passionate follow-up to 2005’s Lambda Literary Award finalist, Where the Apple Falls, Bashir’s poems challenge truth to stare down the power of fear and paralysis.