Carissa Ceasor is a young black author, poet and actor from the south. Their writing focuses on the conflicting expectations placed on black, queer, neurodivergent and ill individuals, and the trauma that creates. When it's not directing its gaggle of rouge actors, or leading its school's creative writing club, Carissa can be found knee-deep in old web forums running calculations on the ins and outs of realistic fictional societies, from planetary surface temperature to language specific puns. One day, Carissa hopes to befriend a sentient AI.
Tracy K Smith, Virginia Woolf, Ursula Le Guin
Our celebration of Pride and Caribbean American Heritage continues in part 2 of the conversation between Girls Write Now Fellow Sally Familia and Mentee Carissa Ceasor. Last episode, our guests dove deep into how they use poetry to process and release their emotions, in addition to the impact their ancestry has on them. This week, Sally and Carissa talk more about poetry and give tons of great advice for all of you fellow writers listening in.
In this riveting conversation, both our guests talk about what it means to explore their Caribbean ancestry and queerness through writing poetry. Carissa opens with three excerpts from their in-progress poetry chapbook entitled “Messages from the Radical Diaspora.” If you’re all about culture, identity, emotional liberation, and history, this episode is for you.
