Not Ready to Say Bi to Bi Visibility Week? 8 More Bi Writers to Love
Happy bi-visibility day! September 23rd was bi visibility day, so let’s highlight some contemporary bisexual poets and give them some love!
Viva Flores
Viva Flores is an Apache and Chicana poet, fiction writer, and performer. You can check out her prose at Black Girl Dangerous, and read her poetry at Xicana Chronicles.
“I think back to when you mentioned your childhood and the westerns you’d watch on TV, there were saloons, right? and
gunslingers who never gave up and women with long hair and bit parts that looked, that looked
just like me?” — Border Lover, by Viva Flores.
Franny Choi
Franny Choi is an amazing woman who, among many other accomplishments, is also a very talented poet. She has been the recipient of awards for her poetry and been published in various journals and magazines. I particularly enjoy her spoken word poetry. She speaks with fire and emotion, about poignant, urgent topics that frequently bring her Korean background to the forefront. You can read her poetry in Anomaly #24.
Brenda Shaughnessy
Brenda Shaughnessy is a poet born in Okinawa, Japan, and later moved to the US. She has garnered many accolades and publications, and has also imparted her knowledge at universities across the US. Her poetry deals with lust, self-reflection, and self-acceptance. Her poems are very personal, while still maintaining an aura of mystique or obscurity.
Emily Rose Cole
Emily Rose Cole is not only a lovely poet, but also a great musician and lyricist. She has been the recipient of various accolades, and also been published in magazines such as the Sycamore Review. She is currently a PhD student in Illinois, where she also teaches. Her poetry is very descriptive and lyrical, almost like prose. It is very powerful, and her poems always gave me a very sharp visual of her metaphors and allegories.
Aricka Foreman
Aricka Foreman is a poet, as well as an editor and educator. Originally from Detroit, and currently based in Chicago, she recently published Dream With A Glass Chamber. Foreman’s poetry has a dreamy essence to it, as well as tremendous strength. Read Aricka’s “Dream Coated with Fluoxetine” at Split This Rock.
G.L. Morrison
G.L Morrison is a self-described “disabled fat queer cis white poor poet, artist, writer and chair of the Portland Communist Party USA.” Her book, Chiaroscuro Kisses, is available now.
Ana Castillo
Fiction writer, poet, playwright — Ana Castillo moves fluidly from genre to genre as needed to deliver her messages — never settling, always open to experimentation, Castillo is still bringing ‘Xicanisma’ to life with her works even after more than 15 books.
See Viva Flores interview Ana Castillo over at Bitch!
Shamala Gallagher
Shamala Gallagher is an Indian/Irish American poet and essayist who grew up in San Jose, NM. Always giving back, Shamala has worked as a case manager for homeless families and for HIV+ individuals. She has volunteered and worked in domestic violence shelters, taught writing workshops in public schools and community centers. All of which informs the evocative space of her poetry. You can read her poem “wisteria & loud feelings” in Drunken Boat #24
