Sahar Muradi is a NYC–based writer, performer, and educator. She is the author of Ask Hafiz (which received the 2021 Patrons’ Prize for Emerging Artists from Thornwillow Press), [ G A T E S ] (Black Lawrence Press), and A Garden Beyond My Hand (Belladonna*), as well as co-author of A Ritual in X Movements (Montez Press) and co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press). Sahar is a founding member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association and co-organizer of the community garden reading series “A Garden Variety: Poetry & Prose.” She is a recipient of the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award, the Himan Brown Poetry Award, a Kundiman Poetry Fellowship, an Asian American Writers’ Workshop Fellowship, as well as a finalist for the NYFA Poetry Fellowship. She has an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, an MPA in international development from NYU, and a BA in creative writing from Hampshire College. Sahar directs the arts education programs at City Lore and dearly believes in the bottom of the rice pot. saharmuradi.com