Karla Brundage

Karla Brundage is an Oakland poet, editor, essayist, activist with roots in the Bay Area, New York and Hawaii. A performer, teacher, mother and beach lover, Karla is also a board member of Before Columbus Foundation. A recipient of a Fulbright Teacher Exchange she spent a year teaching in Zimbabwe and three years in Côte d’Ivoire where she founded West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange. Her book Swallowing Watermelons reflects on mixed race identity, single parenting, and living with epilepsy. In 2020, her poem Alabama Dirt was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her upcoming book, Mulatta–Tragic No More will be released next month by Fleur du Mal press. You can also find Karla on Shuffle and Twitter.

Karla performed in the fourth Better Ancestors on October 4, 2021

Karla was invited by Teju Adisa-Farrar.

She invited Dr. Allison E. Francis to perform in the subsequent show, on January 3, 2022.

Publications:

Karla has a new book out, co-written with Allison Francis, called Mulatta, Not so Tragic – it’s available at your local bookstore or you can purchase directly from Karla.

WO2WA has two anthologies in the works, too: Hawaii to Ghana, East Oakland to East Africa (Kenya) with Patrice Lumumba Writers Groups, and West Oakland to West Africa with Lagos Nigeria.