Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: Priscilla Wathington
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
January 2024 Poet: Priscilla Wathington
Area C
the map emphatic with line grayed out Areas declaratives of spellings conqueror streets shrinking seas tell me what difference whose name we spit over the pothole Fiat's coarse tires crack into earth begotten of sergeants swallowtails topsoil profiling how much run off owl rain estrogen below other horizons other names for skulls let's agree the map self-portraiture parse its starvations cannot point us south
Source
Paper and Stick, Tram Editions, 2021 (and originally published in the journal Matter)
Poet Bio
Priscilla Wathington is a Palestinian-American poet and editor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her chapbook, Paper and Stick, was published by Tram Editions in 2021. Her poems have appeared in Adi Magazine, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, Salamander, The Normal School, Mizna, Sukoon, and elsewhere. She sits on the board of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and is currently pursuing a MFA at Warren Wilson College.