s4e9 March, 5th, 2026
Karla Brundage is founder West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange and author of three books of poetry, including award winning, Blood Lies: Race Trait(or), Swallowing Watermelons, and co-author of Mulatta–Not so Tragic. Her work as editor and publisher for Pacific Raven Press has and Tar Baby Quarterly included authors in the Bay Area, Hawaii, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya in the following anthologies: Sisters Across Oceans, Our Spirits Carry Our Voices , and Black Rootedness: 54 Poets from Africa to America. Media credits include Sister Power on ThinkTech Hawaii, Write America: A Reading for Our Country, C-SPAN, LitSeen, Wanda’s Picks and Chills at Will Podcast. Her poetry, essays and short stories can be found in Konch, Literary Magazine, sPARKLE & bLINK, Write America, Black Fire This Time, Essential Truths, and A Gathering of Tribes: Black Lives Matter Issue, Blind Persistence amongst others.
A graduate of Vassar College, Mills College MFA Program, and San Francisco State Clinical Schools Project, Karla has traveled to Cote d’Ivoire where she taught for three years, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Tanzania.
In all her travels Karla has sought cultural understanding, connection and to experience the shared humanity and healing that can occur when sharing stories. Her latest project, Writers Across Oceans will launch its first writing retreat and workshop series in 2026.
