Poetry. LGBT Studies. Asian AmericanStudies. This long-awaited first collection of poetry by queer Sri Lankan writer and spoken-word artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is full of the stories we've been waiting for. Tracing bloodlines from Sri Lanka's civil wars to Brooklyn and Toronto streets, these fierce poems are full of heart and guts, telling raw truths about brown girl border crossings before and after 9/11, surviving abuse, mixed-race journeys and high femme rebellions. Consensual Genocide celebrates our survival and marks our rebel memories into history. "Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's words leap off the page—urgent, sumptuous writing that demands, and deserves, a wide audience. I'm listening"—Anna Camilleri.

Author City: OAKLAND, CA USA

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a Worcester-raised, Toronto-matured, Oakland-based queer Sri Lankan writer, performer, and teacher. She is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Mangos With Chili, North America's only touring cabaret of queer and trans people of color performing artists. She is a commissioned performer with Sins Invalid, the national performance organization of queer people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Her one-woman show, Grown Woman Show, has toured throughout North America. The author of CONSENSUAL GENOCIDE and LOVE CAKE, her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies. She writes regularly for Bitch, Colorlines, Hyphen, Left Turn and Make/Shift magazines. The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities, which she co-edited with Ching-In Chen and Jai Dulani, will be published by South End Press in 2011. She is one of Feminist Press's 2010 "40 Feminists Under 40 Who Are Shaping the Future" and a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee.

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