The Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.
Long Eye
Long Eye: Poems By Kwoya Fagin Maples Hub City Press, 2026 Paper: 16.95 Genre: poetry, eco-poetry Reviewed by Laura Secord Long Eye by Kwoya Fagin Maples is a lyrical tapestry woven with seas, currents, ocean creatures, whales, lost ancestors, marriage, motherhood, family love, and a Black Mermaid. The Black Mermaid speaks the Prelude. She is based on the West African deity Mami Wata (or water mother), who is believed to have rescued the kidnapped Africans who were thrown or driven from ships during the Middle Passage. She takes us into her ocean world in the recurrent Autobiography of a Black Mermaid poem series: “Every body of water ripples in wind. The sunball —tossed like salt onto waves— sinks in beams that sound beneath, clear to the living beds of varied corals whose chalices and tentacles drift in tide Every morning the reef hosts its chorus: in arrangements of clicks, burbles and whistles, parrot fish crunching coral to excrete sand, damselfish claiming thickets, while dolphins choreograph alluring displays Every underwater being exists in relation: eels and trout pair [...]
