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.

writing struggles

BlogKIS.listcancer // Charles Derry // completion // moving forward // support groups // surviving // writing life // writing struggles

Vol. 56, Surviving by Percentages

Brooklyn, NY It’s been a year since my last KIS.list posting. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s been a year since I’ve thought about the KIS.list. I actually have a whole draft of a report on post-Katrina Mardi Gras, which I wrote last year after Mardi Gras 2006. I also have two incomplete posts—one on novel… »

BlogKIS.listartist life // Clarion West // fear // Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art // Gail Raborn // imposter // novel // novel writing // Race // Stephen Nachmanovitch // surrender // writing life // writing struggles

Vol. 50, Surrendering the Ego

Posted on 15 August 2005

Brooklyn, NY I’ve been tricked, had, hoodwinked, bamboozled. After years—10 to be exact—of working on the same high-concept novel, I have somehow been convinced to start working on a whole new novel. That’s right, completely new—from scratch! I remember when I was at Clarion West, one of our teachers—Jack Womack, told us that learning how… »

BlogKIS.listartist life // career // earning money // faith // making a living // novel // publishing // rejection // sarah pemberton strong // writing struggles

Vol. 41, Claiming It

Posted on 11 March 2004

Brooklyn, NY As I find myself mired in my perpetual 9-to-5 depression and overwhelmed by the lack of brain space to successfully ponder the distinctions between genres, the secrets of various writing processes, the difficulties of artist development and the importance of craft; I’m just plain exhausted. Under the oppression of this malaise, my thoughts… »

BlogKIS.listaudience // chapbook // community // Harlem Book Fair // readers // Red Clay Magazine // self publishing // writing advice // writing life // writing struggles

Vol. 35, The Making of a Chapbook

Posted on 24 August 2003

Brooklyn, NY I cannot explain exactly why I decided I had to put out a chapbook at the Harlem Book Fair. The urge came over me and I committed to having it done. I called my friends at Exit the Apple/Inner Child Books to see if they wanted to share a table and sell their… »

BlogKIS.listcompletion // confidence // dissertation // faith // rejection/acceptance o'meter // Writer // writer's block // writing advice // writing coach // writing struggles

Vol. 34, The Story of a Dissertation Journey

Posted on 17 July 2003

Brooklyn, New York and Baton Rouge, Louisiana It is mid-July and I am just sitting down to write the KIS.list for May and June. Motherhood certainly has something to do with it. I am not mentally engaged with writing in the same single-minded manner I had been before my daughter’s birth. Now, I have very… »

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.listartist's life // Bullshit or Fertilizer // faith // perspective // Pierre Bennu // Promotion // rejection/acceptance o'meter // self confidence // Self-promotion // writer's life // writing struggles

Vol. 30, Hype and Content

Posted on 23 January 2003

A Conversation with a Fellow Writer and a Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY A writer friend of mine was visiting and the topic of hype came up. He brought up a writer’s website he had recently visited. The website pissed him off because the writer claimed to have produced mountains of various types of work, but… »

BlogKIS.listartist life // the writing life // writing advice // writing struggles

Vol. 28, Administration vs. Play/Art

Posted on 1 October 2002

Conversations with Artists and Myself I was talking to my father recently about a video program he teaches to New Orleans public high school students. One of the program’s administrators had to relocate at the last minute, so my father stepped in as administrator. I asked him how administrating was going and he said it… »

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… »