Zahra Gordon

07/08/2026

As a grad student, I was privileged to intern at The Clifton House. Today, the organization participates in CLLCTIVGive, a 24-hour fundraising event to help drive meaningful resources into communities in Baltimore.

The Clifton House's mission is to continue the legacy of acclaimed poet Lucille Clifton and community activist Fred Clifton by providing mentorship, local and global resource access, training, and development in the creative arts to people of historically marginalized groups of all ages in the Baltimore and surrounding communities, with particular focus on Afrodiasporic, women, and LGBTQIA+ poets, writers, artists, and creative activists.

Please consider aiding their mission and making a donation today! Link in comments.

20/07/2026

Thanks to everyone who joined us at The Ivy Bookshop this weekend! It was a great evening full of community, fellowship and literature.

Happy to share also that limited copies of my thesis collection, Butterfly Praxis, are now available at The Ivy! Get yours while supplies last.

06/07/2026

Excited to share a new poem in Poda Poda's Issue 2: Omission. Read my poem "Complaint Email Erasure" at the link. Let me know what you think in the comments. 😊

02/07/2026

If you're in the DMV and missed us in May, here's another chance to experience poetry and prose from the 2026 University of Baltimore MFA Graduates!

Join us for "A Reading with the Graduates of the University of Baltimore MFA" at The Ivy Bookshop.

🗓️July 17, 2026
🕡6pm
📍5928 Falls Road, Baltimore MD

Looking forward to convening with my cohort again. ☺️

Registration link in the comments!

30/06/2026

Allow me to reintroduce myself: Zahra Gordon, MFA. 😉🎓🖤

21/06/2026

Happy to share that I won the 2026 Plork Prize from the University of Baltimore's Department of Creative Writing & Publishing Arts!

Read an excerpt from the official announcement below and click the link for full article. 😊

Excerpt: "Zahra's book concept, growing out of her reading of Lawrence Brown's Black Butterfly, expressed both her personality and the essence of Baltimore with creativity, intelligence, and a mixture of whimsy and poignancy," Prof. Winik said. "Her cover is one of the most memorable in program history."

Butterfly Praxis’s cover features a black-and-white portrait of Gordon, wearing a fur coat and a serious expression, riding a city bus. In what Boyd called "a highly Plorky turn," the author asked anti-disciplinary visual artist Kearra Amaya Gopee to do a photo shoot precisely with the cover in mind. A color photo on the back depicts Zahra and her precocious young son, who visited MFA classes and made many friends among the professors and student along the way.

Poet Zahra Gordon, a member of The University of Baltimore's Class of 2026 in the MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program, earned this year's Plork Prize, as voted by the MFA faculty.

18/06/2026

Happy to share that three poems from my thesis collection, Butterfly Praxis, are featured in the Spring 2026 issue of A Gathering Together Literary Journal. Thank you to the editors for this opportunity!

by ZAHRA GORDON in Spring 2026

12/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to the MFA Graduate Reading and Book Fair.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of my thesis collection, Butterfly Praxis. Thank you for reading!

I'm still processing the past month; the past 3 years, actually. Lots more to share. Soon. 😊

26/04/2026

Can't believe I'm less than 2 weeks away from the MFA Graduate Reading and Book Fair! I'll be sharing more about my thesis collection, Butterfly Praxis, and experience in the MFA program soon. For now, if you're in the DMV, join me!

11/04/2026

This.

“What are we left with at the end? / A murdered dictionary and field”

— Omar Sakr


Algo in the genocide
by Omar Sakr

Okay I won’t use the word Jewish
And I won’t use the word Zionist
And I won’t use the word genocide
And I won’t use the word apartheid
And I won’t use the word settler
And I won’t use the word colony
And I won’t use the word killed
And I won’t use the word watermelon
And I won’t use the word Palestine
And I won’t use the word resistance
And I won’t use the word law
And I won’t use the word moral
And I won’t use the word men
And I won’t use the word God
And I won’t use the word river
And I won’t use the word sea
And I won’t use the word free
And I won’t use the word children
For the young of _____ are always _____
What are we left with at the end?
A murdered dictionary and field
After silent field of unmarked graves.


This poem appeared in The Nightmare Sequence by Omar Sakr, published by Nightboat Books, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.