Andrea Abi-Karam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Poet
- performer
- editor
- EXTRATRANSMISSION
- Villainy
- We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics
Andrea Abi-Karam | |
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| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | Mills College (MFA)[1] |
| Genre | Poetry |
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Andrea Abi-Karam is an Arab-American and trans poet, performer, and editor. They are the author of the poetry collections EXTRATRANSMISSION and Villainy, and co-editor, with Kay Gabriel, of We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics.[2][3]
EXTRATRANSMISSION and Villainy were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, and We Want It All was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Anthology and the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[4][5][6][7]
Abi-Karam's chapbook The Aftermath was published by Commune Editions in 2016.[1] Their first full-length collection, EXTRATRANSMISSION, was published by Kelsey Street Press in 2019.[2] Reviews in The Adroit Journal and Full Stop discussed the book's treatment of the body, gender, trauma, militarism, and violence.[8][9] EXTRATRANSMISSION was a 2020 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Transgender Poetry.[4]
In 2020, Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel edited We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics, published by Nightboat Books.[10] Publishers Weekly described the book as an anthology of works by trans writers that uses poetry to reimagine collective struggle.[11] In a 2020 interview with Them, Abi-Karam and Gabriel discussed the anthology's selection process and its relationship to political movement work.[12] The anthology was a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist for LGBTQ Anthology and a Publishing Triangle Award finalist for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[5][7]
Abi-Karam's second collection, Villainy, was published by Nightboat Books in 2021.[2] Reviews in Publishers Weekly, the Poetry Foundation, and the Los Angeles Review of Books discussed the collection's use of capitalization, repetition, protest, public space, grief, surveillance, and political violence.[13][14][15] In Them, Zeyn Joukhadar wrote that Abi-Karam's performance practice incorporates the body, and that Villainy asks readers not to look away from how "pain and legacies of violence" can be entangled with healing, embodiment, and joy.[16] Villainy was a 2022 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Transgender Poetry.[6]
Bibliography
- The Aftermath. Commune Editions, 2016.
- EXTRATRANSMISSION. Kelsey Street Press, 2019.
- We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics. Co-edited with Kay Gabriel. Nightboat Books, 2020.
- Villainy. Nightboat Books, 2021.