Alexis Pauline Gumbs (NHC Fellow, 2020–21)

Fellowship Work Summary, 2020–21

Alexis Pauline Gumbs drafted 19 of the 58 chapters of her work in progress, The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde: Biography as Ceremony which is under contract with Fararr, Straus and Giroux. She wrote several chapters for edited volumes: “Preface” in Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought edited by Briona Smith (New Press); “Water and Stone: A Ceremony for Audre Lorde in Three Parts” in A Darker Wilderness: An Anthology of Black Nature Writing edited by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions, forthcoming); “Survival Radio for Genevieve and Audre” in Poetry As Spellcasting edited by Destiny Hemphill, Lisbeth White, and Tamiko Beyer (North Atlantic Books, forthcoming); and “The Rhythm of Gray Whales Praying for Audre Lorde and May Ayim” and “Self Portrait as Hurricane: Audre Lorde and Impermanence” both in Bodies of Water: A Reader edited by Filipa Ramos and published by the Shanghai Biennale, 2021. She also wrote the essay “Two Rivers,” for Southern Cultures, vol. 26 no. 4.