"[My] responsibility is to understand the context of my own existence." Keisha-Gaye Anderson's Literary Life
"As an immigrant first-born daughter, this is not the practical or stable thing to do in the eyes of our family."
I’ve always been very curious about the life that brings a writer to the pen or keyboard. My hope is that in getting to know authors in a new light, we might find ourselves in the process. Today, we are featuring our second author, .
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Keisha-Gaye Anderson (she/her) is a Jamaican-born poet and visual artist. She is the author of the poetry collections Everything Is Necessary (Aquarius Press), the award-winning A Spell for Living, and Gathering the Waters (Jamii Publishing). Keisha is a past participant of VONA and Callaloo writing workshops, and was short listed for the Small Axe Literary award. She has been a Brooklyn Public Library Artist in Residence. Keisha holds an M.F.A. from The City College, CUNY.
What inspired you to start writing?
No one asks a three year-old child if they want to get on a plane and leave their country, and everyone they know, forever–at least, not any Jamaican parent, and definitely not during the 1970s. As little as I was, that move to New York City would eventually ignite in me a persistent curiosity about who I was because of my familial and cultural context, and where I belonged in my new environment. Writing helped me to orient myself. To talk to myself in the form of a diary was soothing. And as I was introduced to fiction and poetry, something clicked. I was moved by the power of words to reveal things hidden in me and around me, and connect with others having the same realizations. I had to try it for myself. Writing became that flashlight and compass. Stories I read flicked on a switch, stirred something in me about who I believed I was, and who I could possibly become. It was freeing.