Fellows

Maria Eliza Hamilton Bispo de Jesus Abegunde is an egungun (ancestral) priestess in the Yoruba Orisa tradition and Reiki Master with a focus on the recovery of ancestral memory from the Earth and human body. Her ongoing research is on embodied memory of the Middle Passage and slave trade for African Americans and black Brasilians.

She is the author of three poetry chapbooks, including Wishful Thinking. Excerpts of her award-winning novel-in-progress, The Ariran’s Last Life, have been published in Best African American Fiction 2010, The Kenyon Review, Margin Magazine, Warplands, and Best African American Fiction. Excerpts from her memoir, Arroyo, detailing the retracing of the Middle Passage routes by sailing from Puerto Rico to Brasil, have been published in nocturnes.

Abegunde has received fellowships from Norcroft, Sacatar (Brasil), and Ragdale foundations. She has received awards from the Poetry Center of Chicago Discovery Award series, Illinois Arts Council, and the Chicago Cultural Center.

Her poems have been anthologized in Gathering Ground, Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21^st Century, Knowing Stones:  Poems of Exotic Places, I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You, and Catch the Fire.  Her poetry has also been published in journals and literary magazines, including Lorraine and James, Wicked Alice, Janes Stories, and rhino.

She is co-founder of Jane’s Stories Press and Foundation. JSPF offers workshops and retreats on writing and publishing for women. She is the co-editor of Jane’s Stories III.

She has taught poetry workshops for the Chicago public libraries, Evanston School District 65, and various community organizations throughout the country, with a focus on the reading and writing of poetry as a meditative act. Abegunde has also been a panelist at various conferences, including the Gwendolyn Brooks’ conference for writers and AWP.

Between 2001-2009, she was the libation pourer for the UNESCO Transatlantic Slave Trade Route-USA Project. She has also been a research associate for the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission. She has presented her work on slavery and memory at ASWAD (the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora).

She is currently pursuing a PhD in African and African American Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.

Diverse, innovative and multi-genre, Opal Palmer Adisa is an exceptional talent, nurtured on cane-sap and the oceanic breeze of Jamaica. Charismatic and informed, Adisa’s concerns span the gamut from children to the environment, and as such there is hardly any topic that she has not written about either in poetry, prose or essay.  A highly sought-after motivational speaker, Opal Palmer Adisa has lectured and read her work throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, South American, and the Caribbean. An award-winning poet and prose writer Dr. Adisa has twelve titles to her credit, including the novel, It Begins With Tears (1997), proclaimed by Rick Ayers as one of the most motivational works for young adults.

Adisa has been a resident artist in internationally acclaimed residencies such as Bi-national Fulbright Institute (Egypt), Sacatar Institute (Brazil), McColl Center for Visual Art (North Carolina) and Headlines Center for the Arts (California, USA). Opal Palmer Adisa's work has been reviewed by Ishmael Reed, Al Young, and Alice Walker (Color Purple), who described her work as "solid, visceral, important stories written with integrity and love."

As an accomplished storyteller of African & Caribbean tales, Adisa follows in the tradition of the African "griot" weaving history and culture to entertain and inform about the intricacies and wonders of life. Through her imaginative characterizations of people, places and things, and her melodious voice, she is able to transport her listeners to the very wonderlands she creates.

An impassioned teacher and literary critic, Dr. Adisa is a full professor of Creative Writing, Literature & Diversity Studies at California College of the Arts. She has taught both graduate and undergraduate students at several universities including, Stanford University and University of California, Berkley & San Francisco State University. Her poetry, stories, essays and articles on a wide range of subjects have been collected in over 200 journals, anthologies and other publications, including Essence Magazine (December 2005 & February 2006) She has also conducted writing and storytelling workshops in elementary through high school, museums, churches and community centers, as well as in prisons and juvenile centers. Moreover,

Dr. Adisa is a gifted diversity trainer, working with various institutions to engage them in issue of inclusion and fairness.

Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa is a vivacious, multi-talented speaker who will enthrall and mesmerize you.

PUBLISHED WORKS:

I Name Me Name (poetry collection), Peepal Tree Press, 2008

Until Judgment Comes (short story collection), 2006

Eros Muse (poetry and essays), Africa World Press, 2006

Caribbean Passion (poetry collection) Peepal Tree Press, 2004

The Tongue Is a Drum (poetry/jazz CD with Devorah Major), 2002

Leaf-of-Life (poetry collection) Jukebox Press, 2000

It Begins With Tears (fiction novel) Heinemann, 1997

Tamarind and Mango Women (poetry collection) 1992

Fierce Love (poetry/jazz recording with Devorah Major),1992.

Traveling Women (short story collection), 1989

Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories (short story collection), 1986

Pina, The Many-Eyed Fruit (children’s book) 1985

Shirlette Ammons' most recent collection of poetry, Matching Skin featuring The John Anonymous EP was published by Carolina Wren Press in 2008. first collection entitled Stumphole: Aunthology of Backwoods Blood was published by Big Drum Press in 2002. Her work has appeared in The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, What Your Momma Never Tod You: True Stories About Love and Sex, The Asheville Revielw and The Journal of the Academy of American Poets amongst other publications. She has recieved a John Hope Franklin Grant for Documentary Studies, The Ebony Harlem Award for Literary Achievement, as well as Emerging Artist Grants from the Durham Arts COuncil and the United Arts Council. She is also vocalist for the hip hop rock band Mosadi Music whose debut album, The Window, was released in 2006 and songwriter and vocalist for the fusion electronic duo, Jon Anonymous.  Shirlette resides in Durham, North Carolina.

^{Gustavo Adolfo Aybar is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he received his MA in Romance Languages & Literature. As a scholar he’s presented at the University of Florida, and has upcoming publications by ABC-CLIO and Salem Press. He is a Cave Canem fellow, and as a member of the Latino Writer's Collective, his work can be found in their anthology, Primera Pagina: Poetry from the Latino Heartland (Scapegoat Press, 2008). Other publications include: Harvest of New Millennium 3.1 & 4.1; Black Magnolias Literary Journal, Jan. 2010; NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture 19-1 Fall 2010; Oranges & Sardines Dec. 2009; and presentmagazine.com where he was a Poet-In-Residence all of 2010. For access to more information, poetry and videos visit www.gustavoadolfoaybar.com.}