• Bushra Rehman

    Bushra Rehman grew up in Corona, Queens but her mother says she was born in an ambulance flying through the streets of Brooklyn. Her father is not so sure, but it would explain a few things.

Reviews and Raves

"Bushra is a little bundle of magic. Her poetry transports you from the dreary world into a colorful, surreal, emotional, and heartfelt place — she makes you wish you were home, and home is wherever she is. She can talk story you all the way from Corona to Pakistan with her insight, humor, and wisdom — and you'll be grateful for the ride." — Ishle Yi Park, The Temperature of This Water Poet Laureate of Queens

Writing

The Lark Articles

On November 13, 2014, “Two Truths and a Lie,” a writing workshop I teach in NYC, was held up at gunpoint. After the robbery, the class became the invisible center in a maelstrom of tensions around the New York Police Department’s Stop-and-Frisk policy, gentrification, and the role of police in communities. Much of what was […]

Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Autobiographical Fiction Part II

First published on Poets & Writers online, September 2, 2013 Go to Part I One of the drawbacks of writing autobiographical fiction is that the people in your head are not imaginary. They’re real. They’re the people you love the most and are most afraid of losing. In the workshop Two Truths and a Lie: Writing […]

Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Autobiographical Fiction Part I

First Posted on Poets & Writers on August 26, 2013. Go to Part II The first question people always ask me about my novel Corona is if it’s true. Yes, like me the character is a Pakistani who grew up in Corona, Queens, worked as a Puritan in a living history museum, and hitchhiked up and down […]

Bushra Rehman on a Book and a Baby

First Posted in Poets & Writers online on August 9, 2013. “I just gave birth to a book and a baby. It turns out that in the time it took from the acceptance of my manuscript to the moment of its publication, I could create a small human being in my body. I’d never thought […]

Secret Survivor: An Interview with Amita Swadhin

On the morning of July 16, 2012, I received a letter from Amita Swadhin, an activist and educator who is at the forefront of the movement to end Child Sexual Abuse. Her father Vashisht “Victor” Vaid was put on probation twenty years ago for sexually assaulting her during her childhood. Amita had just discovered Vaid […]