Valerie Hsiung & Sahar Muradi
Valerie Hsiung
Valerie Hsiung is the author of three full-length poetry collections, the latest of which is her e f g (Action Books, 2016). Individual poems can be found or are forthcoming in dozens of publications, including The Nation, The Believer, PEN Poetry Series, American Letters & Commentary, Sonora Review, Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, So & So Magazine, Gramma, No Dear Magazine, Pinwheel, and beyond.
A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she has performed her little poetry theater at Treefort Music Festival, DC Arts Center, Common Area Maintenance, Poetic Research Bureau, Casa Libre en la Solana, Shapeshifter Lab, and The Silent Barn. Born and raised in Ohio to Chinese-Taiwanese immigrants, Hsiung is now based out of New York.
Sahar Muradi
Sahar Muradi is a NYC-based writer, performer, and educator. She is the author of the chapbook [ G A T E S ] (Black Lawrence Press), co-author of A Ritual in X Movements (Montez Press), and co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press). Sahar is a founding member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association and has been the recipient of the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award, the Himan Brown Poetry Award, a Kundiman Poetry Fellowship, and an Asian American Writers’ Workshop Fellowship. She has an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, an MPA in international development from NYU, and a BA in creative writing from Hampshire College. Sahar works in the poetry and arts-in-education programs at City Lore and dearly believes in the bottom of the rice pot. saharmuradi.com