QUEENSBOUND 2024

Featuring the work of 15 new poets, QUEENSBOUND 2024 has expanded its artistic horizons to include 60 contributors in total, drawing from Queens’ many communities to include poems from every corner of the borough. From channeling Hip Hop beats in Jamaica to birding in Forest Park to losing love on a corner of Broadway in Astoria, each poem in the latest release is a unique narrative that adds to the collective story of this multifaceted borough.

Since its inception in 2018, QUEENSBOUND has showcased the communities of Queens through the words of poets writing poems by, for, and about the borough, all presented on a Queens-line-only subway map.

This year’s edition introduces poems presented in four languages other than English—Japanese, Nepali, Spanish, and Ukrainian—accompanied by their English translations. 

The 2024 contributors, a blend of emerging and seasoned poets: allia abdullah-matta, Jared Beloff, Joe Gross, Nathalie Handal, Emily Hockaday, Dena Igusti, Olena Jennings, Catherine Kapphahn, Hiromi Kiba, Amy Lemmon, Rajan Maharjan, José Alfredo Menjivar, Enzo Silon Surin, Bruce Whitacre, and Micah Zevin.

QUEENSBOUND 2024

Nathalie Handal (“Crossing Broadway,” Broadway – N) is described as a “contemporary Orpheus.” She is the author of 10 award-winning books, including Life in a Country Album, winner of the Palestine Book Award; The Republics, lauded as “one of the most inventive books by one of today’s most diverse writers,” winner of the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing and the Arab American Book Award; and Love and Strange Horses, winner of the Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Guernica, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Nation, and The Irish Times. Handal is the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Fondazione di Venezia, Centro Andaluz de las Letras, and the Africa Institute. She is professor  at NYU, and writes the literary travel column, “The City and the Writer” for Words without Borders magazine. @nathaliephandal

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Nathalie Handal - “Crossing Broadway” - Broadway – N | QUEENSBOUND 2024

Dena Igusti (“sonnet as a survival guide for both versions of this city” -  111 Street A) (they/them) is an Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2023 Perennial Award Winner and Entropy Mag’s Best Of 2020-2021. Their work has been produced and performed at LA Times, The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, Converse, and more. They have received support from NYFA, Baldwin for the Arts, Asian American Writer's Workshop, Culture Push, More Arts, NeXt Doc, and more. They are a 2023 A is For... Playwriting Award Winner, 2022 Best of the Net Nominee, and more.

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Originals

Dena Igusti - “sonnet as a survival guide for both versions of this city” - 111 Street A  | QB24

Amy Lemmon (“Evening Call,” 36th Avenue - N) is the author of five poetry collections, including Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press) and The Miracles (C&R Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in The Best American Poetry, Rolling Stone, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Marginalia, and many other magazines and anthologies. Amy is Professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY, where she teaches writing, literature, and creativity. She is the proud solo parent of two young adults, one of whom is intellectually disabled and in residential care. Born and raised in Ohio, she has lived in Astoria, Queens, since 1996.

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Amy Lemmon - “Evening Call,” 36th Avenue - N | QUEENSBOUND 2024

Enzo Silon Surin (“Elegy for One Sixty-First Street” - Parsons Blvd - F) is a Haitian-born and Queens-amplified award-winning poet, author, educator, publisher and social advocate. He has taught, performed, and lectured on topics such as social justice, the immigrant experience, racial disparities, and mental health awareness. He is author of American Scapegoat (Black Lawrence Press, 2023) and When My Body Was A Clinched Fist (2020), winner of the 21st Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. In American Scapegoat, his second full-length collection of poetry, he interrogates the socio-political framework of a democracy at war with itself and its humanity. Surin is also a teaching artist co-editor of Where We Stand: Poems of Black Resilience (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2022). He is Founding Editor & Publisher at Central Square Press and Founder & Executive Director at the Faraday Publishing Company, Inc., a nonprofit literary services and social advocacy organization. www.enzosurinink.org

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ShurePlus MOTIV

Enzo Silon Surin - " Elegy for One Sixty-First Street" - Parsons Blvd - F  | QUEENSBOUND 2024

Welcome to QUEENSBOUND 2024! Since 2018, QUEENSBOUND has showcased the communities of Queens through the words of poets writing poems by, for, and about the borough, all presented on a Queens-line-only subway map. 

Hear all of the 2024 contributors: allia abdullah-matta, Jared Beloff, Joe Gross, Nathalie Handal, Emily Hockaday, Dena Igusti, Olena Jennings, Catherine Kapphahn, Hiromi Kiba, Amy Lemmon, Rajan Maharjan, José Alfredo Menjivar, Enzo Silon Surin, Bruce Whitacre, and Micah Zevin.  

This year’s edition introduces poems presented in four languages other than English—Japanese, Nepali, Spanish, and Ukrainian—accompanied by their English translations. 

Individual poems are shared in the playlist below.

QUEENSBOUND 2024 - Monorail

Author of the debut poetry collection We Call Them Beautiful (Diode Editions, 2019)
https://www.diodeeditions.com/product-page/we-call-them-beautiful | 

Founder of QUEENSBOUND: www.queensbound.com

Recordings of my published poems and recordings of the work of poets I admire.

Enzo Silon Surin - " Elegy for One Sixty-First Street" - Parsons Blvd - F | QUEENSBOUND 2024

KC Trommer