Sherese Francis

Sherese Francis is an Alkymist of the I-Magination and expresses her(e)self through poetry, interdisciplinary arts, workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Her(e) work takes inspiration from her(e) Afro-Caribbean heritage (Barbados and Dominica), and studies in Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts, mythology and etymology. Some of her(e) work has been published in Furious Flower, Obsidian Lit, Rootwork Journal, Spoken Black Girl, The Operating System, Cosmonauts Avenue, No Dear, Apex Magazine, Bone Bouquet, African Voices, Newtown Literary, and Free Verse. Additionally, Sherese has published three chapbooks, Lucy’s Bone Scrolls (Three Legged Elephant), Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling (Harlequin Creature), and Recycling a Why That Rules Over My Sacred Sight (DoubleCross Press). In 2020, her(e) poem “SAME Nobody” was chosen as a finalist for the Furious Flower poetry prize and her(e) manuscript, PollyNation: The Seminary of Self, was chosen as a finalist for the CAAPP Book Prize. The following year, her(e) poem, “SomNuh/Mbulist (Patois Possession)” won The Caribbean Writer’s Vincent Cooper Literary Prize. Besides publications, Sherese has had her(e) work featured in various exhibitions and showcases from The Lit Exhibit, NY Live Arts, Queens Public Library, York College Arts Gallery, King Manor Museum, WorksOnWater, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Jamaica Flux, Baxter St Camera Club, Bliss On Bliss, Maleza Proyectos, The Rubenstein Art Center and Ely Center for Contemporary Art. Currently, Sherese is the poetry editor of Newtown Literary and curates the Queens-based literary and mobile library project, J. Expressions.

Photo Credit: Rosayln Fernandez