2025, MAR
Attended the Health TechQuity Conference at the Diaz Compean Student Union, San José State University.
2026, JAN
Celebrated as a local author and panelist at LocalLit Annual Author Fair at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San José State University.
2026, TBA
Included in Black Cultural Futurism: Ifá, Indigenous African Beliefs and Black Survival’s anthology, is my chapter “Governance Vs. the State: Black Families & Indigenous Epistemologies.”
2026, TBA
In the Inlandia Institute’s Blacklandia anthology: Minding Our Business-Mental Health and Healing, you can read my essay “Diagnosing It.”
2025, DEC
Discussion on writing my chapbook, A Love Letter, with podcast hosts Elise Marie Collins and Karen Hale of the “How to SuperAge” platform.
2025, OCT
Hosted “The Mandate & The Vote” redux, feat. activist, Carmen Brammer, in-dialogue with students, advocating civic engagement.
2025, OCT
Presented at the SJSU Biennial Open Access Conference, themed Defend Research, Defend Open Access.
2025, SEP
Nominated to the board as the College of Social Sciences representative for the California Faculty Association, CFA, San Jose Chapter.
2025, Aug
Invited to table A Love Letter at Chill Out & Read hosted by San Jose Woman’s Club and Women’s National Book Association.
2025, AUG
Began serving as a submissions reader for Callaloo, a journal of the African diaspora arts and letters, founded in 1976, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
2025, MAY
Volunteered at the 43RD Annual Black Commencement Celebration at San José State University.
2025, MAY
Elected into the Academic Senate, College of Social Sciences (CoSS) to serve on the Organization & Government Committee.
2025, MAR
Attended the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) 2025, Los Angeles, to sign “A Love Letter” and meet readers.
2025, FEB
Invited to be faculty advisor for Faces of Afro Muslims (FAM) at San José State University.
2025, FEB
Attended the Southwest Popular American Culture Association (SWPACA) 2025, Albuquerque, NM, as a moderator and panelist. (program pamphlet)
2025, FEB
Attended the San Francisco Writers Conference (SFWC) 2025.
2024, Nov
Awarded a microgrant from the Associated Students Organization, San José State University, for 2024-25.
2024, NOV
Hosted Vernon “Trey” Keeve, PhD, to share his book “Southern Migrant Mixtape” and speak to an online audience about love, loss, and literature.
2024, OCT
Hosted Sheila Smith McKoy, PhD, to speak on the topic of race, inspired by her book “The Bones Beneath.”
2024, OCT
African Student Organization (ASO) at San José State University invited me to be their faculty advisor.
2024, OCT
Joined the advisory board for the Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American Studies Center (AAACNA), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
2024, OCT
In-conversation with Tshaka Campbell for Beautiful Black Books, in conjunction with San Jose Poetry Center.
2024, OCT
Hosted “The Mandate & The Vote” which brought activist, Carmen Brammer, to engage SJSU students in dialogue and a civic exercise.
2024, SEP
Introduced the Netflix movie “Stamped,” inspired by the scholarship of Ibram X. Kendi, to Banned Books Week audiences at the MLK Library.
2024, MAY
California State University East Bay (CSUEB), specifically, Stacey Moultry, PhD, invited me to read and speak about my path to becoming published.
2024, APR
Hosted Santa Clara County, Poet Laureate Emeritus, Tshaka Campbell, for a discussion on “Reflections on the U.S. and Genocide.”
2024, MAR
Participated in a panel at the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) conference: San Jose, CA. I discussed a need for critical whiteness and Black praxis in ethnic studies.
2024, FEB
Shared a table with my Black Lawrence Press colleague, Chris Locke, at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference: Kansas City, MO.
2023, NOV
Hosted community organizer and political activist, Basil Saleh, at SJSU’s Transforming Communities.
2023, OCT
Hosted Tshaka Campbell, James Cagney, Daniel Summerhill, and Tureeda Mikell during Banned Books Week.
2023, AUG
Started serving as Faculty-at-Large for the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA) at SJSU.
2023, AUG
Launched this site and an Instagram profile with the same long-ass version of my name.
2023, JUN
Whew! Small Distribution Press (SDP) listed A Love Letter in its correct genre: nonfiction. And its a consecutive bestseller, May through July. 👀
2023, JUN
I’m now in the EdD program, Cohort 10, at San José State University. Let’s do this!
2023, MAY
My firstborn, A Love Letter, was a bestseller this month at Small Distribution Press (SDP). Sidenote: it was listed as fiction, but I ain’t mad.
2023, MAY
I was one of five San José State University folk on a panel at Bay Area Book Festival where I shared stories about my journey to publication, and signed a book or two.
2023, MAY
I was one of several Nomadic Press judges who got to pick winners out of 2023’s talented pool of fiction contestants.
2023, MAR
I got to read from A Love Letter at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, and at Pegasus Books in Berkeley for Lyrics & Dirges, and at Medicine for Nightmares in San Francisco.
2023, FEB
I hosted Trauma Tresses & Truth, narratives inspired by the CROWN Act, at the Black Box in the Hammer Theater.
2022, AUG
I taught a gazillion sections of AFAM22, African American Culture in the Humanities at San José State University, and I saw several of my students graduate, Fall 2023.
2021, DEC
My diploma arrived in the mail. Now, I have a MFA in Creative Writing: primary genre, nonfiction; secondary genre, fiction.
2020, FEB
Let’s take with us the best of 2020, but don’t forget the worst, as COVID-19 was as real as all the other stuff folks finally started seeing in 2020.
Carmen Estela Kennedy Saleh 