Soraya Palmer
Soraya Palmer
WRITER: Creative Non-Fiction
USA
Winter 2025
Contact Info
Website: sorayapalmer.com
Instagram: @soraya.palmer
BIOGRAPHY
Soraya Palmer Soraya Palmer is the author of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts. She is a Flatbush-born-and-raised writer and licensed social worker who has worked to advocate for survivors of gender-based violence who are facing criminal charges related to their abuse. She has also spent time as a community organizer for young people who fight against gentrification and police brutality. Her novel was named one of Today’s “38 Best New Books to Read in 2023,” one of the “Buzziest Debut Novels of the New Year” by Goodreads, one of the “Best and Most Anticipated Books of 2023” by Elle magazine, and one of “The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2023” by Ms. Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Electric Literature, Hazlitt, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center and graduated from the Virginia Tech MFA program. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Nicholas.
PROJECT
At Nawat Fes, Soraya Palmer will work on the sequel to her debut novel, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, which was born out of the history of Caribbean resistance and ghosts in Caribbean folklore. The initial plot follows two sisters who grow up in Brooklyn hearing the stories of their parents. Eventually, though, the stories come to life. Rumor has it, for instance, that Anansi once followed their mother around Trinidad. In the sequel, which takes place five years after the first book, the sisters’ ghosts haunt them as they navigate unwanted pregnancies and a mysterious television set. The young women, now in their twenties, begin to experience the beginnings of gentrification in Flatbush and a mysterious series of burning buildings. In the midst of these odd occurrences are the hauntings of folklore figures like Anansi and The Rolling Calf.