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3 days ago
2 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in RHINO

I feel very fortunate to have a Virginia Woolf found poem in RHINO 2021! This is a print journal so you'll have to wait for Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems to be released this summer by Shearsman Books to read "Fortunes." This is the last Woolf found poem I wrote (over a year ago) before sitting down and arranging all my Woolf poems into a collection. In what's basically a half-baked preview, here is the paragraph I used from The Waves to write the "Fortunes" with t

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Nazifa Islam

Feb 20
1 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Aquifer

I figured it's better to share good news late than never: I had a Woolf found poem published in Aquifer: The Florida Review Online last month! You can check the poem out online now. Here is the paragraph I used from The Waves to write "Another day"; the words I selected are in red: 'I hate darkness and sleep and night,' said Jinny, 'and lie longing for the day to come. I long that the week should be all one day without divisions. When I wake early—and the birds wake me—I lie

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Nazifa Islam

Sep 15, 2020
4 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Dreginald

I'm excited to share that I have five Virginia Woolf found poems in issue twenty of Dreginald! Four of these poems are from The Waves and one is from Mrs. Dalloway. Here are the four poems taken from The Waves' paragraphs, with each poem title paired with its paragraph and the words I used for each poem in red: "Before the Wave" 'All my ships are white,' said Rhoda. 'I do not want red petals of hollyhocks or geranium. I want white petals that float when I tip the basin up. I

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A Painting and "The Birds" Poems in Entropy

Nazifa Islam

Aug 20, 2020
3 min

A Painting and "The Birds" Poems in Entropy

I'm excited to share that I have four poems and a painting in Entropy! The poems are all part of Entropy’s “The Birds” series and they're accompanied by an abstract black-and-white painting of mine: “#58.” It would be swell if you could take some time to check out all the art. I wrote “The Seagull” a few years after graduating with my MFA. It was a relief to write. I’d been completely tapped out creatively for months and months and then one random afternoon, “The Seagull” cam

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Nazifa Islam

Aug 19, 2020
2 min

Wild and Precious Life Series

This is very likely news I should have announced many weeks earlier, but life happened or maybe laziness happened—for the sake of appearances, I’m going to go with “life happened”—and I did not get around to posting about a very cool opportunity I was fortunate enough to be a part of a couple weeks ago. I was invited by the lovely Dustin Brookshire to participate in the Wild and Precious Life Series, a virtual reading series that has been going strong for months now. It offer

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Nazifa Islam

Jul 1, 2020
4 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in DIAGRAM

I have long wanted to have poems published in DIAGRAM. It's such a great journal and I've always thought that the work they publish is perpetually innovative, remarkable, and really interesting. After a few bouts of submitting, I'm finally fortunate enough to have two Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Issue 20.3! Check out "She Admired the Dark" and "Us"! What makes this publication all the better for me is that my found poems are published alongside two poems from one of my very

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in The Journal

Nazifa Islam

Jun 26, 2020
2 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in The Journal

I'm so excited to share that two of my Virginia Woolf found poems have found a home in the 44.2 Spring 2020 issue of The Journal! Check out "Brim and Break" and "Seized Up." I believe all writers have (out of their own work) favorite poems. "Brim and Break" is one of my absolute favorites out of the seventy-ish Viriginia Woolf found poems I've written at this point. The source paragraph I used for it is one of the shortest I've worked with, and it was really gratifying to see

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Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Indianapolis Review

Nazifa Islam

May 1, 2020
2 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Indianapolis Review

I'm pretty excited to kick off the month with a publication. "Everything Is Clear" is in the Spring 2020 issue of The Indianapolis Review! In terms of providing commentary on the bipolar experience, this poem is much more about mania than depression. Mania can be a pretty lovely change from the depression that defines most of my bipolar episodes. Obviously, it can go really awry—especially the longer you're stuck in a manic phase—but it does often feel like a respite from the

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Nazifa Islam

Mar 27, 2020
1 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Figure 1

My found poem "This Is Us" was published by Figure 1 just a couple days ago. I very deliberately picked the paragraph for this poem; I wanted a paragraph that had a lot of "we"s in it. So a search for a "we"-heavy paragraph led me to the following paragraph from The Waves—the words I selected are in red: "'Now we have fallen through the tree-tops to the earth. The air no longer rolls its long, unhappy, purple waves over us. We touch earth; we tread ground. That is the close-c

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Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Queen Mob's Teahouse

Nazifa Islam

Mar 27, 2020
1 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Queen Mob's Teahouse

My found poem "I Know Permanence" was published by Queen Mob's Teahouse earlier this month! Here is the paragraph I used from The Waves with the selected words in red: "'It is true, and I know for a fact,' said Bernard, 'as we walk down this avenue, that a King, riding, fell over a molehill here. But how strange it seems to set against the whirling abysses of infinite space a little figure with a golden teapot on his head. Soon one recovers belief in figures: but not at once

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Passages North

Nazifa Islam

Mar 27, 2020
3 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Passages North

I have two Virginia Woolf found poems in the latest issue of Passages North, which was published earlier this month! "Presence" and "Born Falling" were both surprisingly easy to write. I remember sitting down with the paragraphs and "finding" the poems really quickly. Sometimes it's a very slow process to get a found poem written, but for whatever reason these two emerged very easily. Here is the paragraph from The Waves I used for "Presence" with the words I selected in red:

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Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Believer

Nazifa Islam

Feb 4, 2020
2 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Believer

I have a new found poem in the latest issue of The Believer! It's quite exciting. Check out "Ourselves" for a chance to dip your toe into some existential weirdness. I used a paragraph from Mrs. Dalloway to write this poem. Here's the paragraph from the novel with the words I used in red: "She frowned; she stamped her foot. She must go back again to Septimus since it was almost time for them to be going to Sir William Bradshaw. She must go back and tell him, go back to him si

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Nazifa Islam

Sep 29, 2019
1 min

Poems in Random Sample Review

So I somehow did not get around to writing about the two poems—"Frozen" and "Marred"—I had published in Random Sample Review back in August. I was really excited to have poems in a journal with so many Oregon State MFA Program graduates at the helm. I wrote both of these poems back when I was in grad school actually, so it felt all the more fitting that they ended up at Random Sample. I don't remember much about writing "Frozen." All I recall is visualizing a small snow-cover

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Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Beloit Poetry Journal

Nazifa Islam

Mar 25, 2019
1 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Beloit Poetry Journal

I am so incredibly excited to have a Virginia Woolf found poem in the Spring 2019 issue of Beloit Poetry Journal! "Her Instinct" is one of my favorites of my found poems actually. In just a few short lines, I think it really sums up just what anxiety and mania feel like—the unsettling agitation of it all. Here is the paragraph I used to write the poem—it's from The Waves—with the words I picked out in red: "'There is Susan,' said Louis. 'She does not see us. She has not dress

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Nazifa Islam

Nov 23, 2018
2 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Spillway

I'm excited to have a found poem in issue 26 of Spillway! This poem comes from Mrs. Dalloway instead of The Waves, which means it was a bit more difficult to write. Working with the "she" and "he" pronouns tends to be trickier than the "I" ones for whatever reason. But I really love this particular paragraph of the novel. I just think it rings true. That there is something about having cared very deeply for certain people that brings them back to you in certain unexpected mom

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in the Boston Review

Nazifa Islam

Apr 12, 2018
4 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in the Boston Review

The Boston Review has published three of my Virginia Woolf found poems! You can find the poems online. "Brutally" is one of the first poems in this series I ever wrote. In large part because it worked, I kept writing these Woolf poems. I think that's why I have a bit of a soft spot for it. I wrote "Stuck on This Page" after I graduated from my MFA program and it was a relief to know I still could write these poems without having the safety net of the program. "What I Found" w

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Gulf Coast

Nazifa Islam

Mar 12, 2018
4 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Gulf Coast

I am beyond thrilled to announce that I have three poems in a Gulf Coast Online Exclusive! I wrote "Rid of Effulgence" and "With Anticipation" back in my grad school days. I'm pretty positive "Rid of Effulgence" was in my thesis while I have memories of workshopping "With Anticipation" after actually defending my thesis. That's just a memory though so I have no idea how reliable it is. "The Night Is Rapt" definitely emerged after grad school. This is a non-explanation, but I

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Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Bennington Review

Nazifa Islam

Jul 26, 2017
3 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Bennington Review

My latest found poem to find its way to print is in Issue Three: Threat of Bennington Review. The poem, "Without Sanctuary," was written as part of a summer of poetry writing prompts orchestrated by my friend and fellow poet Phillip W. Brown. It's been a few years so I'm a little hazy on the exact details of the prompt, but I want to say that it was to write a poem that included a line from a Shakespeare play. I decided to do that plus write a found poem because I like challe

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in The Account

Nazifa Islam

May 1, 2017
3 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in The Account

I'm lucky enough to have two Virginia Woolf found poems in the new issue of The Account! You can actually read all about the particular project I'm working on at The Account—that's part of what makes it such a cool lit mag—and you can find the source material for "Separate" and "I Cannot Save Myself" below. The words I used from each paragraph of The Waves are in red. "Separate" “If I could believe,” said Rhoda, “that I should grow old in pursuit and change, I should be rid o

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Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Bone Bouqet

Nazifa Islam

Nov 1, 2016
3 min

Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Bone Bouqet

I have two Virginia Woolf found poems in the Fall 2016 issue of Bone Bouquet! You can find background on these poems in this past blog post, which talks about the project and directs you to where you can read three already published poems. To read "Always Him" and "I Cannot Return," you'll have to purchase a copy of Bone Bouquet 7.2. Since I've started publishing these poems, I've been using blog posts to share the almost-end-result of my found poem process. I did this for th

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