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Walidah Imarisha

ワリダ・イマリシャ

Warida Imarisha

Profile

Gender
Female
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Residence History
Portland, Oregon

Career

Occupations
writer, activist, educator, spoken word artist
Active Years
2001-2024
Affiliations
AWOL Magazine, Left Turn Magazine
Memberships
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Human Rights Coalition
Influenced By
Octavia Butler

Awards

Oregon Book Award
2017
Work: Angels with Dirty Faces: Dreaming Beyond Bars
Category: Creative Nonfiction
Organization: Oregon Book Awards
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements

2015 Visionary fiction

An anthology of science fiction stories from social justice movements, co-edited with Adrienne Maree Brown, named after Octavia Butler.

social justiceimaginationresistance

Scars/Stars

2013 poetry collection

Poetry collection published by Drapetomedia.

scarsstars

Angels with Dirty Faces: Dreaming Beyond Bars

2016 creative nonfiction

Nonfiction book focused on criminal justice issues and dreaming beyond incarceration.

criminal justiceprison abolition

Another World Is Possible

2002 anthology

First anthology in response to the 9/11 attacks, co-edited.

anti-warsocial change

Bibliography

  • Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements
  • Scars/Stars
  • Angels with Dirty Faces: Dreaming Beyond Bars
  • Another World Is Possible

Style & Themes

Literary Style
visionary fictiondrawing from real-life inequalities and movements to imagine new worlds
Recurring Motifs
social justice movementsresistance through imagination

Legacy

American writer, activist, and educator renowned for visionary fiction linking science fiction to social justice movements. Key figure in prison abolition and Black studies in Oregon.

Quotes

  • We believe that radical science fiction is actually better termed visionary fiction because it pulls from real life experience, inequalities and movement building to create innovative ways of understanding the world around us, paint visions of new worlds that could be, and teach us new ways of interacting with one another.
    Source: Octavia's Brood (2015)

Trivia

  • Amharic name: ወሊዳ ኢማሪሻ
  • Of Ethiopian descent
  • Featured on Ricanstruction's album Love and Revolution