Shawn(ta) Smith, Queens College

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I chose an MFA in fiction because as a librarian, I have access to all "information" and find that truth wavers along that thin fiction line. Surrounding my life are ancestor-spirits who've charged me the task of storytelling on their behalf, first-person. My politics walk in hand with public education, thus CUNY [City University of New York] is my home. In my writing, I want to queer a statement by making it a question, and it is Queens College’s campus, filled with integrity, remoteness, and personal excitement, that allows me to explore the possibilities of sex, race, and spirit in my words.