Gathering the Waters--2nd Edition Release Celebration

My debut poetry collection, Gathering the Waters, was published 10 years ago this year after being selected as the winning manuscript in a literary competition. Today, I'm thrilled to celebrate the release of the second edition of this beloved book by Willow Books, publisher of my second poetry collection, Everything Is Necessary.

Gathering the Waters is a meditation on the power of the ancestors to guide and transform our lives, as well as our own agency in elevating our lives through the power of self-love and love of community.

I'm happy that this book still resonates with readers and will enjoy a second life with Willow Books. I'm also happy to feature readings my by pressmates Megha Sood and Quincy Scott Jones at this celebration.

Keisha-Gaye Anderson is an award-winning Jamaican-born poet, writer, and visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her other poetry collections include Everything Is Necessary (Willow Books 2019) and A Spell for Living (Agape Editions 2020), which received Agape Editions’ Editors Choice Award and BIBA (Best Indie Book) Award in 2024. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have been widely anthologized, appearing in Caribbean Writer, Black Fire This Time (volumes I and II), African Voices, Kweli, Langston Hughes Review, Peregrine Journal, Mom Egg Review, and others. Keisha has appeared as a featured poet at Dodge Poetry Festival, Brooklyn Museum, NY Historical Society, and elsewhere. Her art has been featured in multiple exhibitions at venues like Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn Public Library, Five Myles Gallery, Restoration Plaza, Billie Holiday Theater, and Carter Burden Gallery. Keisha is also an educator and workshop leader at The City University of New York, Poets House, and other organizations. She has received grants and/or fellowships from the NY Council on the Arts, NY Foundation for the Arts, and The Laundromat Project. She holds a B.A. from Syracuse University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from The City College, CUNY. Learn more about her at www.keishagaye.ink.

Quincy Scott Jones is the author of the (Whirlwind Press, 2009) and (C&R Press, 2021). His work has appeared in the African American Review, The North American Review, , and The Feminist Wire as well as anthologies , , and . His graphic narrative, “>Black Nerd<,” is in the works. With Nina Sharma he co-created Blackshop, a column that thinks about allyship between BIPOC people, featured on Anomaly.

Megha Sood is an Award-Winning Asian-American Poet, Editor, Author, and Literary Activist based in New Jersey, USA. She is an Associate Editor at MookyChick(UK), BrownStone Poets(USA), and a Literary Partner in the project “Life in Quarantine” with Stanford University, USA. Her 900+ works have been widely anthologized in books, magazines, and journals, including Poetry Society of New York, New York Public Library zine, NPR, WNYC Studio, PBS American Portrait, American Writers Review, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Feminist Press, The Opiate Magazine, Narrative Northwest, Stanford Daily, Kissing Dynamite, Rising Phoenix Review, and many more. Her work has been nominated numerous times for Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. She has received support and fellowships from VONA( Voices of our Nations), Pen Women, Dodge Foundation, Kundiman, and Martha’s Vineyard Creative Writing Institute.

Host or Publisher Keisha