Emdash & Ellipses: A Chapbook - Paperback

by Tanzila Ahmed (Author)

"Emdash and Ellipses" is the third poetry chapbook to be shared by poet, writer, and activist Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed. The collection of poems written over the course of the past seven years examines thematic struggles of South Asian American identities, Muslim spirituality, grief, social justice purpose, and the journey for love. Spilt in two parts - Poems to Scream and Poems to Whisper - the pieces explore the spaces in-between, loudly and quietly.

Author Biography

Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed s an activist, storyteller, and politico based in Los Angeles. Essayist, poet and now podcaster, her media content developed around creating a counternarrative for the communities that she belonged to - whether youth, Muslim, South Asian or counterculture. She is cohost of The #GoodMuslimBadMuslim Podcast that has been featured in O Magazine, Wired, Buzzfeed, Mother Jones and NPR. An avid essayist, she had a monthly column called Radical Love, was a blogger for Sepia Mutiny, has written for Truthout, The Aerogram, The Nation, Left Turn Magazine, Angry Asian Man, MTV Iggy, Taqwacore Webzine, Wiretap Magazine, Alternet, Falling Star Magazine and more. She is published in forthcoming anthology Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion(May 2016) and Tia Chucha Press' poetry collection Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts in Los Angeles (April 2016). In 2012, she was notably published in the anthology Love, Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. Her third poetry chapbook Emdash and Ellipses will be published in early 2016. Additionally, Taz is an editor and curator for the South Asian American music website Mishthi Music where she co-produced Beats for Bangladesh: A Benefit Album in Solidarity with the Garment Workers of Rana Plaza. A mixed media artist, her annual #MuslimVDay Cards have been featured in Colorlines, NBC News and Audrey Magazine. Her artwork was recently featured in the group shows Sharia Revoiced (2015), in Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center digital art exhibition "H-1B" (2015), and Rebel Legacy: Activist Art from South Asian California (2014). In 2012 she had her first solo gallery show called Maghrib Memories. You can find her rant on twitter @tazzystar and at tazzystar.blogspot.com.