Samiya Bashir's Blog
March 20, 2025
Let’s Bloom!
Springtime is at Hand…
when will you ever bloom, if not here and now?
— Angelus Silesius (17c)
COMING SOON!!Pre-Order I HOPE THIS HELPS today!
Hey NYC!
Don't miss the premiere Book Drop party for
I HOPE THIS HELPS!
:: Downtown @ Triple Canopy ::
264 Canal St #3W, NYC :: btwn Broadway & Lafayette
New Season, New Openings!
Y'all! My coaching and editorial clients are killing it! I am so grateful for the opportunity to work on such powerful and necessary projects.
I love to help artists and writers open unexpected doors, explore, and develop new and/or ongoing work!
Let's spark your imagination as we expand and deepen their creative practice.
Book your free consultation today!
April 19th
Registration Now Open!This one-time Master Class will explore the growing world of poetry in the expanded field. On and off the page, aural and visual as well as textual and digital, as sculpture, as film, as performance, as public art, and more! We'll explore some of the myriad ways that 21st century poetry is being made and shared.
MAY DAY SPECIAL!
April 27th through May 18th
Registration Now Open!Word on the street is that this four-week seminar helps.
Let's do it together.
In some ways, you are the places where you've been in your life. Experience is carried in our bodies, and our best poetry creates a uniquely poetic experience that moves readers.
In this craft seminar, we'll work together to identify how our poems do what they do to our bodies and minds.
Bring your poems and let's dig in to examine the poem's voice.
We'll turn poems like glass in a window to find their shifting light.
We'll spend four weeks working to see – and create – our work anew.
While there is no workshop component to this class, there will be weekly opportunities to share your work and interact with other participants.
POETRY IN PROVINCETOWN!
New to multimedia and/or experimental poetries? Come on in! The seawater is just fine.
@ The Fine Arts Work Center
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Registration Now Open!One of my favorite summertime experiences is working with poets from across the country who've come together to engage in poetic discovery in one of the most beautiful places on earth!
This summer, I return to the Fine Arts Work Center to work with YOU and close out another summer workshop season.
Gratefully ::
Together, we'll gather seaside in Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of Cape Cod. We'll work across mediums.
We'll experiment and play. We'll explore and deepen our practice.
We'll experience dipping our work through hybrid, multi-media, and/or experimental forms.
FAWC's Tiered Tuition System asks you to choose one of the following tuition levels:
$900 - Sustaining Level
$800 - Standard Level
$700 - Subsidized Level
$500 - Student/Teacher Level
::What's Been Goin' On:: 
Excited for this new piece in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine! It's personal. It's got tips! It's for us. 🫶🏾
[please pardon the paywall 😢 I'm happy to send you the article free!]
I'm proud to have my po-essay, "Overheard,' included in this newest addition to the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books, edited by Sharon Louden, Artists as Writers (eds. Steven G. Fullwood & Seph Rodney) which offers first-person narratives that explore the day-to-day lives of individuals who use writing as both a creative practice and a means of sustaining their daily lives.
Thanks to the LookOut Gallery & the Poetry Center at Michigan State University for a wonderful winter residency and beautiful exhibition of I Hope This Helps!
Watch my Residency Reading & Presentation!
Blast from the past! Don't miss the 2023 premiere of "Dark Matters" — libretto by me and composition by Joel Thompson, opening night at Capital University — Director: Lynda Hasseler
Blast from the Past! Loved giving this reading at The Africa Center for "Ash is our inheritance" — see it for yourself!
Scryptkeeper, PO Box 20186, New York, NY 10014, USA
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January 15, 2025
New Year, New Tools :: Enrollment Now Open!
4-Week Craft Seminar Begins January 29th!
REGISTRATION OPEN + SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
COMING SOON!!
April 29th
This one-time Master Class will explore the growing world of poetry in the expanded field. On and off the page, aural and visual as well as textual and digital, as sculpture, as film, as performance, as public art, and more! We'll explore some of the myriad ways that 21st ccentury poetry is being made and shared.
August 10 - 15, 2025
One of my favorite summertime experiences is working with poets from across the country who've come together to engage in poetic discovery in one of the most beautiful places on earth!
This summer, I return to work with YOU as we close out another summer workshop season at the Fine Arts Work Center. Together, we will gather seaside in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to work across mediums, to experiment and play, and to explore and deepen our own poetry practice with a hybrid, multi-media, and/or experimental focus.
New to multimedia and/or experimental poetries? Come on in! The seawater is just fine.
I Hope This Helps (2020)
Now on view at Michigan State University's LookOut Gallery!
"What is a thing of beauty if not us?"— Samiya Bashir, Field Theories
New Year, New Tools!
Come spark your imagination! I love helping writers expand and deepen their creative practice.
Open unexpected doors to explore and develop your new and/or ongoing work!
:: Make Poems—>Make Magic ::
This New Year we have many ways to make the magic :: together!
Scryptkeeper, PO Box 20186, New York, NY 10014
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www.samiyabashir.com
May 1, 2023
Welcome Back to The Lammys!
The Lammys' new home at NYC's Art Deco Classic The Edison Ballroom!
Get Your Tickets Today! Dear BlogI couldn't be more excited that Lilly Wachowski, Maia Kobabe, Charis Books & More, Roxane Gay, and River Butcher will join us at The 35th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (The Lammys!) on Friday, June 9th.
I do hope you'll join me, and Honorary Chair (and 2018 Trustee Award-Winner) Roxane Gay, in awarding (she/her) with our Visionary Award for her incredible creative contributions to our communities and her dedication to queer literature and storytelling.
We are also honoring author and cartoonist Maia Kobabe (e/em) with the Lambda Literary Trustees Impact Award. By honoring Kobabe, whose memoir Gender Queer is currently the most widely banned book in America, we hope to put the spotlight on the recent wave of censorship against LGBTQ+ literature and on the wave of legislation targeting trans youth.
Our evening's emcee is the hilarious comedian and writer River Butcher (he/him).
And just like I'm bringing back Lambda Literary's Visionary and Trustees Impact awards for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, I am proud to extend our Publishing Professional Award to one of the oldest and proudest independent feminist bookstore in the country, Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia!
Read more about the host, honorees, and schedule for the evening below!
We're only SIX WEEKS AWAY from bringing this legendary event uptown to Broadway and BACK IN PERSON. I promise you an incredible evening of community, comedy, literary excellence, delicious food and specialty drinks.
We've changed up the evening's celebration structure: now you can choose between cocktail seating and dining table style seating! No matter your ticket level, enjoy a rich selection of food by celebrity chef Mina Newman, specialty cocktails with open bars running on every level the entire evening. Plus, there's a VIP cocktail hour before we begin and an incredible roof-top afterparty featuring legendary D.J. Reborn following the event!
Samiya
River Butcher
River Butcher (they/he) is a Los Angeles-based standup comic, actor, and writer. His half-hour special "A Different Kind of Dude" debuted on Comedy Central's Youtube channel and was called "a masterclass in culture war commentary." River wrote on "Belated," previously wrote for "A League of Their Own," and created/starred in/wrote the critically acclaimed and GLAAD award-nominated "Take My Wife."
Lilly Wachowski
Lilly Wachowski (she/her) will be receiving Lambda Literary's Visionary Award for her lifetime of groundbreaking work. She is a writer, film director and producer most famous for creating The Matrix alongside her sister Lana. She is also known for Bound (1996), V for Vendetta (2005), Cloud Atlas (2012), Sense8 (2015), and Work in Progress (2019).
Maia Kobabe
Maia Kobabe (e/eir) will be receiving Lambda Literary's Trustees' Impact Award. Kobabe is a nationally renowned writer and illustrator. Eir first full length book, GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR, came out from Lion Forge Comics/Oni Press in May 2019. GENDER QUEER was a winner of an Alex Award and Stonewall Honor in 2020. It was also the most challenged book in the US in 2021 and 2022.
Charis Books & More
The South's oldest independent feminist bookstore has been celebrating radical and independent voices in the heart of the South since 1974! Located in the Decatur, GA, part of metro Atlanta, Charis Books & More specializes in diverse and unique children's books, feminist, and cultural studies books, books on anti-racism and ending white supremacy, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer fiction and non-fiction. A long-time champion of Lambda Literary and the Lammys, we are honored to celebrate this hard working, community-centric independent book seller for their decades of work supporting our communities.
Get Your Tickets Today!
Scryptkeeper, PO Box 20186, New York, NY 10014
[image error]www.samiyabashir.com
December 24, 2022
A Smatter of Seasonal Love!
HappyHolidays
Thank you
for all the light you've brought to my life
and to the world we share!
Let's do all of the greatest things in the new year!
:: our stories :: our voices :: our lives ::
Photo by Lauren Petty + Shaun Irons @ MacDowell, August 2022
Scryptkeeper, PO Box 1476, New York, NY 10014
www.samiyabashir.com
November 29, 2022
There is still time to Support :: Our Voices | Our Stories | Our Lives
Support Lambda Literary and LGBTQ+ Voices
See my December Update on the important work of Lambda Literary — and sign up for our Newsletter to stay informed!
On this #GivingTuesday:: OUR STORIES REMAIN CRITICAL TO OUR SURVIVAL ::
Dear Friend,
First, I want to thank so many of you for your generous support of my Fifty/Fifty Fundraising Campaign for Lambda Literary. I am still on my way to raising $50,000 for our life-altering work, and appreciate your help to get us there.
There is still time to make a powerful impact!
I have a deep commitment to building partnerships with people like you who believe that the voices and stories of LGBTQ+ people are needed now more than ever. With your support, Lambda Literary can lift LGBTQ+ voices – and the reflections of our lives – even further.
Today, despite all the progress we've made to have a more inclusive society and end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, our communities continue to face attacks and barriers in every aspect of our lives.
The recent violence in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 25 injured (content warning in link: gun violence) is a tragic reminder of why our work is critical. We are not going away. We will not be silenced. We will not serve idly as canaries in the coal mines of oppression and carnage.
But the reality is we are faced with many challenges. A recent report released by PEN America, announced that over 50 groups at the national, state, and local level with LGBTQ characters or themes are advocating to ban the books. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, as of this past July, lawmakers of mostly Republican-controlled states introduced at least 162 anti-LGBTQ bills that would limit classroom instruction about LGBTQ-related topics.
The hateful campaigns of the 70s, 80s, 90s have relaunched to scare people once again into rejecting LGBTQ+ rights. But their hateful strategy today is far more dangerous. People are using social media to go after individuals, like schoolteachers in small towns across the country, with hateful and dangerous messages. We stand with the teachers, the LGBTQ+ writers, and we will continue to educate and advocate for our human rights.
LGBTQ+ stories honor our history and provide a roadmap towards freedom and equality. I hope you agree that LGBTQ+ stories are essential reflections of our vast and expansive humanity.
Today, I ask that you make a donation in support of our programmatic work as we prepare for the year ahead.
Check out the plans forthcoming from Lambda's programs in 2023:
The LGBTQ+ Emerging Writers Retreat: Host the Writer's Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Voices – the nation's premier LGBTQ+ writing residency, which brings together poets, playwrights, screenwriters, essayists, novelists, and memoirists in a safe, welcoming and love-centered community.
Learn with Lambda: Provide access for LGBTQ+ writers to literary arts pedagogy and community. Lambda Literary offers access to panels, craft workshops, and meetings with publishing professionals to uplift the work of our Fellows and grow their writing careers.
The LGBTQ+ Writers in Schools Program: Elevate our partnership with the NYC Department of Education to provide safe spaces for students to talk about great books, queer life, and how to thrive as an LGBTQ+ person. The program will continue to serve students across all grade levels, K-12, and provides access to award-winning books and authors as well as professional development on how to deliver an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum.
Lambda Literary Review: We are rebuilding this critical resource and will continue to offer book reviews, interviews, industry news, and calls for submission of interest to LGBTQ+ book lovers around the world as well as new and in-depth coverage of the LGBTQ+ literary landscape.
I'm very proud of the comprehensive programming Lambda Literary provides to LGBTQ+ writers, and in the coming year, our offerings and support will expand.
As we look towards the future, Lambda Literary will continue to grow in its service to LGBTQ+ voices – our writers and our readers.
Join with Lambda Literary today. Please, make a year-end donation in support of Lambda Literary as we look towards 2023 with vision, compassion, and hope.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Samiya
DONATELambda Literary, PO Box 20186, New York, United States
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October 18, 2022
Samiya Gives the Love
Samiya's Birthday Gift to Lambda Literary
Text FIFTY11 to 44-321 & Help Samiya Make the Magic!
Gifting Love!
Join Us As We Welcome the Season of the Starry Night!
[Costumes Encouraged but Not Required 😎)
October 29, 2022
9:00pm – 12:00am
Pangea :: 178 2nd Avenue (btw 10th & 11th Streets), NYC
Featuring a special appearance by Ronaldo V. Wilson!
Free hors d'oeuvres for the first hour
Hello My Dearests,
I am thrilled and honored to be the new Executive Director at Lambda Literary!
Since 1987, Lambda Literary has nurtured and advocated for LGBTQIA+ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.
| Lambda Literary Awards "The Lammys!" |
| LGBTQ Writers in the Schools |
Through our programs we harness the past and build the future of LGBTQIA+ writing, communities, stories, songs, imaginations, carefully researched facts, actual lives.
Help us go further.
I have a big vision for Lambda Literary. I look forward to sharing that in even greater detail in the coming weeks and months. I look even more forward to working together to make it happen!
In the next year, I hope to meet with our communities, across the country, face to face. The input, support, and investment of our communities in ourselves, our work, and the dedication to service that Lambda Literary represents is critical.
Lambda Literary is at the cusp of flower. I am here to ask your help so that we can really blossom!
On behalf of the most kick-a** staff in the game, of a Board of Directors who has met my JOY with joy at every step I am taking this opportunity to reach out to my own particular love networks.
My assumption of leadership at Lambda Literary coincides with my fifty-something'th birthday—what a gift! To return the gift of trust that has been placed with my by our communities, I have a passionate and personal goal of raising at least $50-something-thousand for Lambda Literary.
To kick-off my inaugural fundraising campaign, I am hosting a 50-Somethingth Birthday Party. I am grateful to Pangea NYC for their support of this event, including the donation of complimentary hors d'oeurves throughout the first hour of the evening and to poet and performer Ronaldo V. Wilson -- don't miss him! -- for donating time and talent.
Join us!
Reservations are Required because space is limited.
For my very first fundraiser, I lovingly ask everyone to consider digging deep to support the work of Lambda Literary, and the LGBTQ+ literary arts communities we all love. No registered attendants will be turned away based upon their ability to give, so I hope you'll consider adding an additional gift of $50 to cover the attendance of a party-goer with more limited means.
I have begun conversations around this campaign and am deeply moved by the support I've received so far from friends and family.
I couldn't be more proud of our team at Lambda Literary. I am honored to lead and support a staff of queer writers who whose work is to lead and support queer writers in their work.
How lucky we are to have us working for each other, together, in this passionate effort to make even a bit of our world a bit of a better place.
We all benefit from every single piece of it, from every line of poetry, from every scene in a play, from every moving song lyric, from every story that didn't quite earn mainstream recognition, and yet continues to change so many people's lives.
We're lucky. And I truly believe we're about to just get luckier. But I need your help. I also hope to ensure that your generosity leaves you feeling just as fortunate. What gifts we are to each other.
Thank you,
Support Samiya >>Samiya's Birthday Gift to Lambda Literary
Lambda Literary
PO Box 20186
New York
United States
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September 22, 2012
Samiya Bashir shared an Instagram photo with you
Samiya Bashir just shared an Instagram photo with you:
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"I don't know what it feels like to be the #sun, but I guess it's probably a mistake to assume it always feels happy."
The Instagram Team www.samiyabashir.com
September 2, 2012
Samiya Bashir shared an Instagram photo with you
Samiya Bashir just shared an Instagram photo with you:
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"My first taking-a-friend-to-the-airport trip in #PDX! With the great and powerful @alexispauline -- there's a mountain behind us!"
The Instagram Team www.samiyabashir.com
August 11, 2012
"As a child, she said she wanted to be a writer, and they said, you can't be a writer. Black women aren't writers."
"As a child, she said she wanted to be a writer, and they said, you can't be a writer. Black women aren't writers." Octavia E. Butler wrote speculative fiction that urged readers to look at their world in fresh, unfamiliar ways. In this new video, fellow authors Samuel R. Delany, N.K. Jemisin, and friend and agent Merrilee Heifetz speak about the messages Butler imparted through her work."Her stories really weren't about aliens... they were about people," says Jemisin."She was willing to hold up that mirror."http://scryptkeeper.blogspot.com
www.samiyabashir.com
August 5, 2012
Hurray! I've finally made it to Oregon!
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"Holy Muppets-on-Ice, Batman! I made it! I finally, actually, made it. #roadtrip #home"
http://scryptkeeper.blogspot.com
www.samiyabashir.com
