Sehba Sarwar - BLACK WINGS

Introduction by writer Jacquelyn "Jacsun” Shah, who has published small fry and What to Do with Red, chapbook and full-length poetry books, respectively. Recent winner of Literal Latté’s Food Verse Contest, she has poems forthcoming in several other journals.

The conversation following Sarwar’s reading will be moderated by writer and performer Christa Forster

Spanning two continents, Black Wings is the story of Laila and Yasmeen, a mother and daughter, who struggle to meet across the generations, cultures, and secrets that separate them. Their shared grief, as well as the common bond of unhappiness in their marriages, allows them to reconnect after seventeen years of frustration, anger and misunderstandings.

Sehba Sarwar creates essays, stories, poems, and art that tackle displacement, migration, and women’s issues. Her writings have appeared in publications including New York Times Sunday Magazine, Asia: Magazine of Asian Literature, Callaloo and elsewhere while her short stories have appeared in or are forthcoming in anthologies with Feminist Press, Akashic Books, and Harper Collins India. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan in a home filled with artists and activists, Sarwar is currently based in Southern California where she lives with her husband and teenage daughter. Her novel Black Wings was originally published in Pakistan; in 2019, a second edition of the book is being published in the US for the first time by Veliz Books. Sarwar revised text for the second edition of Black Wings, but as she says, “The heart of the novel—the healing power of stories and multigenerational exchanges that cross continents—remains constant."

Christa Forster is an award-winning writer, performer and educator; she lives in Houston, TX with her husband and their two teenagers; she teaches English full time for the Upper School of The Kinkaid School.