Chavisa Woods is a New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 based fiction writer, poet and performance artist.

Biography

Chavisa Woods is the author of "Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind." This work of full-length fiction was released in 2008 by Fly By Night Press. The book explores the rural American landscape and the experiences of working class women in the U.S., addressing issues of lesbian identity, race relations, and cycles of abuse both domestic and societal. The book also explores psychological and metaphysical themes, combining realism with meta-fiction, creating what some have called ‘magical realism.’ This book is both a short fiction collection and a novel. The ‘chapters’ are interconnected short stories written in varying styles that follow two characters, a mother and daughter, throughout their childhoods into adulthood. The identities of the characters are sometimes abstracted within the contexts of the stories.

Woods was born and raised in Sandoval

Sandoval, Illinois

Sandoval is a village in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Sandoval is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land.-History:...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Her performance art, spoken word and poetry have been featured in multiple venues in New York City and abroad, including the Whitney Museum as part of Butch Morris' Chorus of Poets, the New York Vision Festival, Quimby's Bookstore Chicago, Hot Festival at the Dixon Place Theater NYC , The Howl festival NYC, The Brecht Forum

Brecht Forum

The Brecht Forum is an independent Marxist educational and cultural center in New York City, named after German writer Bertold Brecht. Throughout the year, the Forum offers a wide-ranging program of classes, public lectures and seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops,...

, Pink Pony Reading Series, Blue Stockings Bookstore NYC, The Fresh Fruit Festival

Fresh fruit festival

The Fresh Fruit Festival is a New York summer arts festival featuring the work of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered artists. Held every July, the festival was founded by Carol Polcovar in 2003 and sponsored by All Out Arts and New Village Productions. It is currently a program of All Out...

, Slam Poetry in St. Louis and the National Poetry Slam

National Poetry Slam

The National Poetry Slam is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and France participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and takes place in a different US city....

.

Her first full-length book of fiction, Lo

During 2008 she collaborated with a contemporary video artist and animator to produce abstract animations to accompany the stories from Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind.

Awards

Chavisa Woods was the 2008 recipient of the Jerome Foundation Travel Grant/Award for Literature.

Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind is a current finalist for the Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...

 for Debut Fiction.

Poetry

Woods has published poetry in a number of magazines, including:

• Union Station Magazine http://unionstationmag.com/2011/05/poem-chavisa-woods/
• The Evergreen Review http://www.evergreenreview.com/123/remembering-what-it-was-like.html
• Danse Macabre- Stonewall Issue, 2009 http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/stonewall.aspx
• Poetz.com Green Issue, 2008
• Blue Fog Journal, 2007
• Cake Poetry, 2007
• Tribes Magazine, 2007
• The Red Doll (chapbook
  Chapbook
  A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
  
  ) – 2006
• Matador, 2006
• The BARD Gay and Lesbian Poetry Review, 2006
• Chronogram, 2006
• Conversations with the Other Woman (chapbook), 2006
• Where We Live, 2005,
• Calling the Red, Chapbook, 2005
• Xanadou, 2004
• Wildflowers, 2004
• In The Fray, 2004

Fiction

• Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind, Fly By Night Press, 2008
• "The Smallest Actions", The Fiction Circus
  The Fiction Circus
  The Fiction Circus is a Brooklyn-based online literary magazine that currently publishes short fiction and essays on the arts. The group also holds staged multimedia fiction readings accompanied by electronic music and incorporating visual art and theater as a frame narrative...
  
  , 2008
• "The Bell Tower", Prima Materia, 2006
• Short story in Fuzion 1003, 2004

Nonfiction

• Autonomedia, "Worst Book I Ever Read" (essay), 2008
• Sotheby’s Catalogue, May 2008
• Aganzia Catalogue (art review), 2006
• A Gathering of the Tribes
  A Gathering of the Tribes (Cultural Organization)
  A Gathering of the Tribes is a multi cultural interdisciplinary arts organization founded by Dr. Steve Cannon at his home in New York City's East Village. The Organization publishes a literary magazine and has now presented its twelfth issue...
  
  Webmag, "Borat Receives Memo"

Book Reviews

• Pedestal Magazine http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=2946
• The Brooklyn Rail
• GO! Magazine
• The Fiction Circus
• The Short Review
• The Feminist Review
• The Feminist Review (2)
• GO! Mag
• Small Press Distribution Books

External links

• www.chavisawoods.net Author Homepage
• Tribes Online -
• Interview at The Short Review
• Interview with KDHX literature for The Halibut
• Go Magazine review