Shayla Hawkins

Author's Bio

"The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty." -- John Steinbeck Amen to that, John! This quote crystallizes why I'm committed to becoming the most honest and intelligent writer I can be. Writing is the greatest joy and oxymoron of my life: It's a beautiful bloodletting; it's the magic and the machete that God has used to shape my life and give it dimension and purpose. Writing is my bleakest nightmare and my best and highest dream. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Publications and Prizes

Anthologies:

Role Call (Third World Press, 2002), Mona Poetica (Mayapple Press, 2005)

Journals:

Calabash, Drumvoices Revue, Graffiti Rag, Maxis Review, Paris/Atlantic, Caribbean Writer, Pembroke Magazine, Windsor Review, Driftwood Review, Afterthoughts, Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review, African Voices

Prizes:

The Caribbean Writer Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for Short Fiction

Personal Favorites

What I'm Reading Now:

Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado, Sustenance and Desire by Bascove, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Favorite Books:

The Bible, Like Water for Chocolate, Of Love and Other Demons, Middle Passage, Nectar from a Stone, Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire, The Farming of Bones, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Finding Nouf, Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems, Wide Sargasso Sea, Soulcatcher and Other Stories, Song of Solomon, Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, The Pearl, Five Quarters of the Orange, Mama Day, The Red Tent, To Kill a Mockingbird, Sarah, The Chin Kiss King, A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen, Collected Poems: Robert Hayden, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Pope Joan, 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, etc., etc., etc....

Favorite Authors:

Laura Esquivel, Zora Neale Hurston, Edwidge Danticat, Daphne DuMaurier, Pablo Neruda, Charles Johnson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Langston Hughes, the Bronte sisters (especially Emily), Christina Rossetti, Wislawa Szymborska, Robert Hayden, Toni Morrison, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Keats, Countee Cullen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Herbert, Ellen Conford, O. Henry, Beverly Cleary, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ruth Downie, Jean Rhys, Khalil Gibran, Carolyn Keene, Zoe Ferraris, John Donne

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the writers listed in it.
Listing last updated: August 28, 2008

More Information

Listed as:

Poet

Gives readings?

Yes

Travels for readings?

Yes

Identifies as:

Christian

Fluent in:

French