K. Ibura
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K. Ibura is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. The middle child of five, she grew up in a hardscrabble neighborhood with oak and fig trees, locusts and mosquitoes, cousins and neighbors. K. Ibura's work delves into spheres of human liberation, human connection, and evolution. She employs speculative fiction and creative nonfiction to take readers through mind-bending journeys into the transcendent, the mystical, and the fantastic.
KIS.list
BlogKIS.listcraft of writing // kiini // KIS.list // limitations // novel writing // structure // writing advice // writing strategies // writing struggles
Vol. 32, Freeing Your Work Through Limitations
Posted on 5 April 2003
The idea for this month’s column was sparked during a recent conversation with my mother. My mother is at the bitter end of her struggle to complete her Ph.D. In the final throes of her dissertation, she finds herself pulled in more than one direction. On the one hand she wants to explore all her… »
BlogKIS.listcraft of writing // critiques // editing // emotional connection to art // K. Ibura // KIS.list // rejection // writing adv // writing struggles // writing tips
Vol. 31, Seeking and Receiving Critiques
Posted on 1 March 2003
In writing an essay for an upcoming anthology, I was recently stumped. The topic seemed unwieldy and I couldn’t get the tone and feel of the piece. The content in the first draft was too personal. The content in the second, too dogmatic. I put both the first draft and the second draft to the… »
BlogKIS.listfaith // KIS.list // rejections // the writing life // writing // writing struggles
Vol. 27, Writing is Fighting
Posted on 6 September 2002
Novelists for Life Cybergroup Cyberspace On my novelists e-group, we are always discussing writing. The processes of writing, the challenges, the failures and successes, what scares us about it, how we triumphed over an obstacle or a block. During one of our discussions on writing, a member of the list, Angel Shannon wrote: ishmael reed… »
BlogKIS.listediting // editors and writers // K. Ibura // KIS.list // rejection/acceptance o'meter // the writing life // writing advice // writing struggles
Vol. 26, Editing: Going Within
Posted on 23 July 2002
Brooklyn, NY I am fascinated with the editing process. That should not come as a surprise as I am an editor and a copy editor as well as a writer. I look at the first draft of a story or an essay as a mass of raw material, a block of marble to be carved…. »
BlogKIS.listabara // acaraje // Bahia // Brazil // dende // feijoada // kiini // KIS.list // language // market // Portuguese // Salvador
Vol. 22, In Brazil: Bahian Food
Posted on 15 March 2002
Salvador, Bahia Brazil When I returned from Lençois, my sneakers were so dirty, I decided to just leave them in the plastic bag I transported them in. On a rainy morning, a few weeks after my return, I decided to wear my sneakers instead of the customary flip-flops. I pulled my sneakers out of the… »
BlogKIS.listbook proposals // editors // K. Ibura // KIS.list // magazine writing // pitching // publicity // rejection // writers and editors // writing life
Vol. 18, Pitching: A Study in Frustration
Posted on 6 February 2002
New York, NY Pitching is a skill in and of itself. To be able to look at a magazine and create story ideas that fit with their thrust is a talent I haven’t mastered. Admittedly I haven’t tried very hard to master the technique. For me, the act of pitching steals away valuable writing time… »
BlogKIS.listapplications // completion // creativity // finishing projects // grants // kiini // KIS.list // pitching // publication // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // self worth // Sue Shapiro
Vol. 17, Contemplation on Completion
Posted on 28 January 2002
Brooklyn, New York A few months ago, someone suggested I pitch the KIS.list to print publications. They envisioned a syndicated column in magazines and/or newspapers nationwide. This idea interests me, and I thought I’d put it off until later, but then I decided, why not do it now. It took more work than I expected… »
BlogKIS.list9-to-5 // artist // H.G. Wells quote // K. Ibura // KIS.list // learning to write // paying the bills // structure // surviving // Thomas J. Watson // travel // work // writing life // writing struggles // writing trips
Vol. 15, 9-to-5
Posted on 23 December 2001
An ongoing conversation about j-o-b-s New York, NY Before I went away on the Thomas J. Watson fellowship (and before I’d worked an actual 9-to-5), I thought I had to work to feel settled in my life. These words from my student lips: “I can’t live without working. I’d go crazy.” Then I went away… »
BlogKIS.listartist life // artist philosophy // balance // Clarion West // difference between making art and making money // earning money // honesty // K. Ibura // KIS.list // living off art // mindset // money and art // pathway for income // success // supporting self // writing life // writing struggles
Vol. 13, Money and Art
Posted on 2 December 2001
Email Conversations with a Writer Friend New York, NY I’d noticed one writer friend constantly complaining about money. On stage, in private, whenever conversations about her work came up, one of her responses would be “Yeah, well, I ain’t got no money.” Her disgruntledness made me uncomfortable. I’ll have to excavate (as another friend says… »
BlogKIS.listcatcalling // community // compromise // conversations // date rape // dissertation // how writing heals // interviews // K. Ibura // Kalamu ya Salaam // KIS.list // muscling women // Navigating to No // no // performance // Ph.D. // publishing // Radio // rape // rape culture // seduction // self defense // sharing // solitary // Spelman // submissions // support // Tayari kwa Salaam // television // The Black Collegian // the writing life // victimization // yes
Vol. 11, I/We
Posted on 9 November 2001
Phone Conversations with My Mother Baton Rouge, LA and Brooklyn, NY Writing is a very solitary act. Yet it, like many other art forms, is only fulfilled in community. It lives when it is read by others. Some artists don’t like to be influenced by others while developing their work, but I find a large… »