Photo: © Regine Romain
Ancient, Ancient
short fiction (paperback)
Winner of the 2012 James Tiptree, Jr. Award Ancient, Ancient collects the short fiction by Kiini Ibura Salaam, of which acclaimed author and critic Nalo Hopkinson writes, “Salaam treats words like the seductive weapons they are. She wields them to weave fierce, gorgeous stories that stroke your sensibilities, challenge your preconceptions, and leave you breathless with their beauty.” Indeed, Ms. Salaam’s… »
On the Psychology of Writing
Notes from the Trenches
Kiini Ibura Salaam has been writing essays and short stories since 1990. Over the years, she discovered that there’s much more to writing than sitting down and writing. There are a series of complex psychological and logistical demands that artists have to navigate to sustain artmaking on an ongoing basis. Is my work good enough? Does anyone care what I’m writing… »
On the Struggle to Self-Promote
Notes From the Trenches
After over 20 years as a writer Kiini Ibura Salaam is fascinated by all the backstage psychological wrangling writers go through to sustain their careers. With a regular column on writing, Kiini has written almost 100 mini-essays exploring the nitty, gritty of what it takes to sustain a writing career. Salaam’s “Notes from the Trenches” series takes an inside look at everything… »
About
Kiini
Ibura
Salaam
Kiini
Ibura
Salaam
Blog
Vol. 98, Self-Love: Not Easy, But Required
Posted on 25 September 2013
“I LOATHE myself. I am the greatest disappointment of my life on all fronts: professionally, physically, financially, romantically.”—From Vanessa Libertad Garcia’s suicide note, which was posted as her last blog post What would you imagine to be the profile of someone who is *the* greatest disappointment of her life? A woman who has production and writing credits on five feature… »
Vol. 97, Writing: Ancillary Skills Required
Posted on 29 August 2013
My friend and I were discussing dance and I was telling her how—although I used to be a dancer, I haven’t danced formally in years. Recently, I participated in a friend’s flash mob and could not for the life of me remember the choreography. We discussed the fact that the skill of remembering choreography is an ancillary skill necessary to… »
Vol. 96, Writing Requires Mental Fitness
Posted on 13 July 2013
I remember when I traveled a lot, people used to tell me: I wish I could do that. I always thought to myself: No, you don’t. Of course they wanted to see the world, make new friends, meet new cultures, but all of that came with a cost. There was a certain level of mental fitness required for me to travel… »
Kiini
Ibura
Salaam
Writings
Speculative Fiction
Of Wings, Nectar, & Ancestors
1 On deep purple-black nights, when the whole house has pushed itself into slumber, WaLiLa’s energy flits around her room like a moth. It leaps up to do jumping jacks & turns cartwheels, then clings to the ceiling. It bounces off the walls & jiggles its knees impatiently. WaLiLa is a jitterbugging ball of need about to pop. Her energy… »
Speculative Fiction
MalKai’s Last Seduction
“the most powerful seductions are executed against the silence of few words” Sometimes, I feel shoulder shrug like a motherless child. cheek rub against shoulder Sometimes, I feel like a motherless child. body slump At twilight, when the earth is settling down for rest, MalKai is turning over inside. The colors of dusk pierce him like a rusty pin breaking… »
Speculative Fiction
At Life’s Limits
1. Musicians, practicing an age-old tradition, scatter syncopated rhythms across the night sky. Through rapid hand movements and homemade instruments, they pay homage to fierce gods. The music tattoos the sky’s surface with patterns of prayer, patterns that transform themselves into welcome mats for beings in realms the musicians have no knowledge of. One such welcome mat beckons to WaLiLa’s… »
Essay Excerpt
Race: A discussion in 10 parts plus a few moments of unsubstantiated theory and one inarguable fact…
1. Race is bullshit. A meaningless line drawn in sand by men bent on world domination and oppression. It was introduced as a fixed notion, an unchangeable, undeniable fact of world order. Yet from the moment of race’s conception, the amazing diversity of body types, cultures, and traditions on the African continent alone complicated race’s claim on classification. In New Orleans,… »
Essay Excerpt
When Conception Equals Confusion: The Battle Between Mothers and Would-Be Fathers
It happens in silence. A man—young, tall, hooded—sits in a waiting room. All the chairs are taken except the one diagonally across from him. A woman comes in carrying a child. She sits in the only seat available and busies herself removing the child’s coat and hat. The man’s eyes cut to the corner checking out mother and daughter. The… »
Essay
“There’s No Racism Here?” A Black Woman in the Dominican Republic
When I first returned home from studying abroad, everyone wanted to know, “How was the Dominican Republic?” I was reluctant to respond. Masking the truth behind “fine’s” and “good’s,” I skirted my real feelings. “Did you like it?” is such a loaded question that it can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” For a long time, I refused… »