fahima Ife

fahima ife (she/her) is an American poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of the poetry books Septet for the Luminous Ones (Wesleyan University Press, 2024) and Maroon Choreography (Duke University Press, 2021), as well as the chapbook, abalone (Albion Books, 2023). Her poems have been published in The Kenyon Review, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Poetry Daily, the American Academy of Poets’ Poem-A-Day, Interim, The Brooklyn Rail, and others. She has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, and the Library of Congress.

ife is an associate professor of Black aesthetics and poetics in the department of critical race and ethnic studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She teaches classes on global African music and performance, creative research methods, poetry, poetics, and love. ife makes her home on the central California coast, where she practices a vegan and yoga lifestyle grounded in daily rituals of love, joy, and peace.