Swallowing Watermelons (Ishmael Reed Publishing Company)

About the Book

Swallowing Watermelons is Karla Brundage´s first published poetry collection and contains almost twenty years of her writing. Her poems are deeply honest, personal reflections--vivid stories from the heart cut to the bone. Moving between Hawaii, the mainland United States and Zimbabwe, she shares moments in her life as a daughter growing into a woman, as a lover, a mother, and single parent.

Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, an independent small press whose distinguished list of titles includes fiction and poetry works by writing luminaries Boadiba, Victor Hernandez Cruz, William Demby, Sister Goodwin, Colleen McElroy, Lorenzo Thomas, Quincy Troupe, and Shawn Wong, has utilized the print-on-demand technology of Xlibris to make Ms. Brundage’s poetry widely available.

About the Author

Karla F. Brundage, is a poet, essayist, writer, activist, performer, and teacher of high school English. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals and magazines including: Bamboo Ridge, Konch, Hip Mama, Oahu Review, Kaimana, and La'iLa'i. Her poetry has been included in the anthologies Intersecting Circles: Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1999) and Adam of Ife: Black Women in Praise of Black Men (Lotus Press, 1992). Her essays have appeared in the journal Bamboo Ridge, and in the anthologies Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, edited by Ishmael Reed (Viking Press, 1997) and Conversations: Essays for Reading and Writing (Longman, 2003). Her writing has been performed onstage in productions such as The Medea Project, directed by Rhodessa Jones (San Francisco Center for the Arts, 1994); Carving Circles directed by Joyce Lu (Earl Ernst Lab Theater, May 1997); and The Herstories Project (Exit Theater 2005).

Karla received a degree in English Literature from Vassar College, where she studied post-colonial African literature with South African exile Dr. Moses Nkondo. In 1999, she received her MA in Education from San Francisco State University, specializing in Multicultural Curriculum Development and Implementation. As a participant in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program in 2001, she spent a year teaching in Zimbabwe. Her efforts to effect social change through art include participation in Poetic Protests, and teaching poetry to youths in the penal system as well as to women and men in maximum-security facilities. She currently lives in the Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire where she teaches and continues to write.