Contemporary Humor Writing 2024
introducing the writers of the 2024 workshop with Damon Young
Fatima Bhojani
Fatima Bhojani examines her homeland of Pakistan and her now home, the United States, through the lens of someone simultaneously on the inside and the outside. As a Pakistani Muslim immigrant writer, Fatima straddles multiple and evolving identities, an enterprise that results in interesting experiments in the kitchen (and on the writing desk). These days, she is submerged within her darkly comic debut novel, which follows a Pakistani mother and daughter who leave the lives they know for bewildering and ever-shifting worlds. One of these days, she hopes to (nay, she will) catch a live performance of Nothing More
Derrick Reaves
Derrick Reaves (he/him) was emboldened by the 2020 pandemic and BLM protests to engage his lifelong love for creative exposition as an emerging writer. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and comedic writing has since received accolades including acceptance into the Yale Writers’ Workshop and the Anaphora Arts, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Roots. Wounds. Words., Tin House, VONA, and Kenyon Review Writers’ Fellowships. New Jersey raised, his likes include diner hopping, “The Shore,” and anything with Taylor Ham. He also enjoys long walks to the refrigerator and re-engaging classic Janet Jackson choreography. He lives in NYC with his partner, a designer.
Elica Sue
Elica Sue (she/her) is an educator and writer based in Southern California. She can be found at botanic gardens and shooting birds in nature (with her camera).
Elica Sue is the recipient of a scholarship from the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA) / Manuel and Penelope Flores Scholarship. PAWA has been supporting VONA writers since 2011.
Nia Thomas
Nia Ita is a bilingual speech-language pathologist working in the NYC public school system. She has dedicated her life to working with students with disabilities and amplifying the voices of those who often go unheard. Through her blog, Bilingual Speech Resources, she shares resources and best practices in speech pathology. An avid reader with a love for learning, she frequently shares her current reads on #niaitabookclub. A two time Writing Our Lives alum, her writing has been published in Bustle, Remezcla and other platforms. Nia’s creative non-fiction braids the personal and literary. Sunrises find her vibing to her favorite songs while nurturing her beloved plant babies.
Emma Akpan
Emma Akpan is a writer who lives in Washington, DC, and was born in Toledo, Ohio. She is working on a novel about a thirteen year old girl in Toledo who uses hip-hop to navigate her difficult childhood, and a collection of short stories about women encountering gentrification in Washington, DC. She writes about girlhood, the unsaid, fugue and paths of escape, and agency for the powerless.
When Emma is not writing, you can find her on a yoga mat, taking pictures, or making floral arrangements or finding the best cup of coffee.
Emma has attended Tin House Workshop and Sackett Street workshops, and is a scholarship recipient for Blue House Residency. Her writing has appeared in Reckon Magazine, TBD Health, Rewire News, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Root.
Kristina Sepúlveda
Kristina Sepúlveda writes as a socially acceptable way to connect with her inner bochinchera. She’s been a phone psychic, a bike messenger, and a political operative. Kristina now lives in Isabela, PR.
Faithna Geffrard
Faithna Geffrard (she/her) is a Haitian American writer from south Florida. Her parents’ tales of Haiti are the inspiration for her own writing. Faithna explores the themes nature, family, horror, and the unknown in her speculative fiction. Her writing interweaves the lyricism of Haitian-Creole with the legacy of writers of the African Diaspora. She was a 2024 Winter Writers’ Retreat Roots.Wounds.Words. Speculative Fiction Fellow and a Wild Seeds Retreat Spring 2024 Fiction Fellow. When she isn’t reading or writing, she is cooking and thinking about food. Her essay “Eating Memories of My Mother” can be read in We Have Food At Home. She can be found on IG @faithnawritehere.
Jamie Li
Born in Guangdong, China and raised in Seattle, Jamie Li (she/her/她) now lives in Southern California. Her writing has been recognized in the New York Times and published in Slant’d Magazine, Mangoprism, and others. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts and is currently an MFA candidate in fiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she also serves as Associate Managing Editor for its literary magazine Hunger Mountain. She is working on her first novel.
Outside of writing, you can probably find her at a salsa or bachata social.
Lidia Bonilla
Lidia Bonilla is a speaker and wellness educator, helping people create joy after trauma and depression. She studied polyvagal theory and nervous system regulation with Deb Dana. She is working on a memoir about her journey with depression, loss and grief.
She was the creator of the Moi Box, an innovative intimate lifestyle product that was the first sex toy project approved by Kickstarer. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes and Essence Magazine.
She is a member of the Center for Fiction’s Writers Studio and has taken memoir writing workshops with Melissa Febos. When she is not avoiding writing, she can be found playing with other people’s dogs.
Mayur Chauhan
Mayur Chauhan is an LA-based immigrant-actor-writer-comedian and a teacher of creativity. He grew up in New Delhi in such a loving family that when he was leaving for the US, all his relatives came to the airport to ensure it was a one way ticket.
He writes stories in all forms. He has published over 30 short humor pieces in McSweeney’s and elsewhere. Mayur is a Breadloaf and Key West Literary Seminar Scholar.
Mayur created and facilitates C.A.R.E. for Artists an 8-week long online creativity, & accountability group for artists across disciplines. He wants you to know that you’re amazing.
Mayur loves writing letters by hand, chai and you.