iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 15/06/2026

Wrote most of the day today, inspired after last night at Hollywood Bowl. Chief Adjuah. Elena Pinderhughes. Kingfish. Kokoroko. Terrace Martin. R+R=NOW. Still listening 🩷💜💙

View of the Hollywood Bowl at night with R + R = NOW supergroup playing. The audience is plentiful. The arc over the stage is pink and purple. The stage lighting is blue and turquoise. There are five band members.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 15/06/2026

Lewis ascended the top step for a record 106th time, and the first time with Ferrari, in a durag. I will not be taking questions. Only delight.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari racing driver, with a stocking on his head and his curly hair sticking out the back

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 04/12/2025

I cannot believe it has been almost 10 years since The Relationship Theater company, brilliantly directed by Fiona Templeton, put on Non-Sequitur, a play that I was told could not be performed. What a whirlwind life has been since then! Sometimes looking back can make you excited to look forward.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 03/10/2025

You’re invited to my master class on how to finish your book, based on my 25 years of writing experience. For all of that time, I have been working and caregiving and writing at the same time. I love sharing what I’ve learned. Two scholarships are available: www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/mast...

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 25/09/2025

New Substack: I wrote about a surprise Corvette, a Jesmyn Ward novel, and the spirit of my dad-- authorkqueen.substack.com/p/on-the-ver...

On the verge of being obscene, part 1, A Travel Report
authorkqueen.substack.com

A red corvette stingray with black and silver accents, parked on a tree-lined street

A black man with light skin and silver hair and sunglasses, smiling, standing on one foot showing off his Jordans and his silver Porsche 911 cabriolet, in front of a California mountain and blue sky

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 28/08/2025

Passing by my old house, and my old neighborhood, made me feel euphoric today despite the state of the world. I’ve felt so unexpectedly at home. But now that it’s evening and quiet, I’m missing my father so much. He loved L.A. It is far from perfect but now I love it anew. Tomorrow: the beach 🩵🌴☀️

A concrete and iron gate in front of a house and a bunch of greenery

The corner of Crenshaw & King, Los Angeles California, on a sunny day in traffic. A sign at a stoplight reads: In honor of Malcolm X

The metro station at King blvd by the Crenshaw mall with a car and two giant palm trees

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 24/08/2025

I’m still alive. The earth is still alive. Language is still alive. If you can’t find any beauty where you are, you can still make it. Took 20 years to get this story out. I hope you’ll read it 💙🩵 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/khadi...

Image of Khadijah in a cozy living room, wearing a red and white flowered dress with white buttons and a V-neck and 3/4 sleeves. Her skin is brown, her hair is salt and pepper and curly, her lipstick is red and she is smiling.

Image of a purple flowering tree in front of blue sky, and a home with a tiled roof

Khadijah‘s book, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir, which has a dark blue cover with turquoise and lilac lettering, on top of colorful tiles. The background tile colors are dark, blue, yellow, green, orange and beige, mostly

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 20/08/2025

Some healing color 💚🩷🧡💜💙 I have slept on the power of good Vietnamese food. Never again 🍵🌴☀️

Spring rolls with colorful radishes on a clear plate sitting on the lap of someone wearing a turquoise dress

One tiny palm tree on the left, two giant palm trees intertwined on the right

A colorful wild garden. Green plants and purple, pink, white and fuchsia flowers.

Vegetable spring roll on a white plate with a container of chili sauce, and a bowl of vegetable pho with gold utensils on a wooden table

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 12/08/2025

Ugh typos above Anyway here’s another of the ships. I think it’s actually the one captained by Adm Nelson? Need to check, it’s been 6 years

18th/19th c ship in Portsmouth England. Three masts and three cannon decks. A sculpture of a man and dog in front. Gorgeous clouds and blue sky

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 12/08/2025

I’m in Seattle tonight! I’ll be talking to the brilliant Jodi-Ann Burey about the memoir. 🩵💙 These are a couple shots of one of the 19th century ships that I was saw when I was researching in Portsmouth, England at the Naval shipyard.

19th century ship docked in Portsmouth, England

Another angle of the 19th century ship, with the tall white modern Portsmouth shipyard sculpture to the left and a cloudy sky behind them both

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 06/08/2025

Book mail! This gorgeous and fierce collection from a new-to-me poet, Jason Allen-Paisant milkweed.org/book/thinkin...

Thinking with Trees: Poems by Jason Allan-Paisant. The cover has a giant tree covering most of it with a backdrop of mountains and pink clouds. Khadijah is holding the book in front of a painting with figures and lines from artist Kellems in turquoise, purple, pink, and red. It looks like beading.

Back cover of Thinking with Trees: Poems by Jason Allan-Paisant. It is brown with beige and yellow text. Khadijah wrote a back blurb, along with francine j. harris and Kei Miller. Khadijah is holding the book in front of a painting with figures and lines from artist Kellems in turquoise, purple, pink, and red. It looks like beading.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 06/08/2025

I had an intense (and fun!) conversation with fellow #veteran Michael Jerome Plunkett about my book, gender, and who institutions are built to serve. Listen now: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

LitWar podcast splash page. Burgundy background. Khadijah Queen on the right (glasses, brown skin, curly gray hair), old school typewriter on the bottom left with paper reading LW31: Khadijah Queen

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 05/08/2025

She’s here! Order from your favorite bookseller! Leave a review, tag me in your photos! Reserve a copy at the library! I’ve got her in the woods today and reading tonight. Raise a cup of tea (or a shot of whisky) for us 💙🩵💜 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/khadi...

Khadijah‘s brown hand is holding her hardcover copy of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veterans memoir. There is a backdrop of a forest. On her wrist are three bracelets: two of pearl and one labradorite

Turquoise, dark blue and lilac hardcover of Between the devil and the deep blue sea: A Veterans Memoir by Khadijah Queen, stood up on stone steps with greenery

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 03/07/2025

Day 3— To me, this poem captures the emotional intensity we may feel related to the encroachment of environmental disaster, connecting that feeling across time and space. One thing poetry can do is bear witness. Read the full poem: poets.org #poetry #poemaday #andrearexilius #khadijahqueen #booksky

The Way the Language Was
Andrea Rexilius

The day the deer died,
I was alive in my house.
I was alive in a watery field
of glaciers. In the realm
of birchwood in my throat.
The day the robins wept, the day
foxes ran from the woods on fire

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 02/07/2025

Day Two— “A Poem About Home” by @bettinajudd is an image-rich lesson on what we can use our hands to nurture or ignore, heal or harm—mundane physical knowledge, aimed internally or externally. Read the full poem: poets.org/poem-a-day . #poetry #poemaday #booksky #poem #bettinajudd #khadijahqueen

A Poem about Home
Bettina Judd
I learned to chop from the hand.
The onion a palm-cupped moon
sliced by a blade almost
grazing thenar eminence.

Was trained well before YouTube and
Top Chef told me I had it all wrong,
before my cousin went to culinary school
and brought back the gospel of
tucking fingers on cutting boards

about this poem

“This poem began as a meditation on learning how to cook and the danger cooking navigates. As I wrote it, the notion of risk expanded beyond the kitchen and then returned to the home.”
—Bettina Judd

Black and white image of Bettina Judd, looking pensive with a hand on her cheek and hair coiled artfully across her forehead

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 01/07/2025

Day One— A haunting poem by DaMaris Hill that I chose for its depth and intensity, its emotional connections between past and present, personal and historical. Sign up for Poem-A-Day for more 🩵 poets.org/poem-a-day

Come. Pray. Know
Load audio player
about
come. pray. know histories. today
is mother’s birthday. she insists on

dying. offer her a framed memory,

her maiden name clotted in a map older

than “america.” she will refuse, turn

away. grief sharpens the gales of wit.

again, she abandons.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 30/06/2025

Gearing up for a July of sharing my Poem-a-Day curation for Academy of American Poets while crafting interview questions and reading a stack of books for another project while getting some Substacks ready while going through old notebooks for something else. Too much? Probably 🤓😹 #BookSky

Row of colorful notebooks on a shelf. Somewhat organized right to left by height, with some variation

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 25/06/2025

Two industry reviews are in! You can pre-order here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/khadi... #memoir #poet #bookreviews

´A poetic page-turner of a memoir about a black woman’s time in the Navy’ — Kirkus Reviews. Background is purple waves. Cover of Khadijah‘s memoir at the bottom.

´Throughout, Queen is by turns vulnerable and fierce, making resident observations about the complexities of war, womanhood, and perseverance. Readers will find much to admire.´ —Publishers Weekly. Background is purple waves, cover of Khadijah‘s book at the bottom.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 24/06/2025

I entered my 5th decade resolved to spend more time outdoors. So far that’s been a daily walk, but sometimes—especially in these times—a more dramatic scene change is necessary.

Bright blue lagoon surrounded by trees and other greenery

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 22/06/2025

Just a timeline cleanse, everybody. My son made me a waffle. And officially I lived through my 40s, time traveling 🩶

A waffle drizzled with honey and two strawberries on a turquoise saucer

A tiny red velvet cake with gold candles that say 50

Primordial-looking forest scene with a sea in the background that leads to mountains in the distance, and the sun beaming down from a blue sky with thin clouds

The ruins of an ancient temple or Basilica with arched doorways and windows, and a crumbling gate

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 09/06/2025

I’ve started a Substack where I share new writing about books, music, plays, poems, travel, creativity, imagination, mothering, emotion, and the healing process. Hope to see you there. #booksky substack.com/@authorkquee...

Autism International—article title for June 9, 2025 with a backdrop of blue sky viewed from an airplane window. Full moon in the upper R corner and a bed of white clouds at the bottom

Song: A Sky Full of Stars, Coldplay
The last time I flew with my son, he almost triggered an international incident. I have not told anyone about this—even family—but since we're facing another historic eugenicist moment, I thought it important to share, with my son's input and permission, a story about what can happen during a crisis when things go right.

Screenshot of June 7 post, titled Channel Wonder. Image of a stormy sky behind a cityscape

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 16/04/2025

Good morning to these ranunculus (ranunculi?) that I will practice drawing on rice paper for today’s 2-minute sanity break

Ranunculus in a vase surrounded by buds and greenery and a fallen petal

Two white and pink ranunculus in a vase surrounded by buds and greenery, one white bud partially open

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 11/03/2025

Just proof of life, proof of delight, love of coffee on top, healing in progress 🤎

Coffee in white and gold porcelain cups on a saucer on a wood tray with red velvet cookies and greenery and another person’s hand in the background

Khadijah at a cafe holding an ornate cup of espresso. Her hair is straight, shoulder length, mostly salt and some pepper. She’s smiling in red lipstick with pearl, gold and light jade beaded bracelets. She’s wearing a white limited edition Lewis Hamilton Takashi Murakami long sleeved tee, a black shoulder brace and left arm in a blue sling

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 27/02/2025

Foxes come to say hello every day 🦊💚🦊 One is awfully wounded, but healing

Two foxes in a yard under a tree in front of a fence and a bench in the sun. One is looking directly at the camera and a wounded one is curled into a ball.

A wounded fox, taking a nap in the sun on a nest of branches in front of a wall of Ivy

I wounded fox in the backyard. Looks at the camera, ears perked up. Behind it is an Ivy covered brick wall and some windows with white trim.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 10/01/2025

When Dr. Bettina Judd kindly asked me how I wanted folks to celebrate this book, I had no answer. Between my dad getting sick and all the ongoing world crises, plus writing and teaching and parenting and health management, I haven’t done any event organizing. What I would love:

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 09/01/2025

I was editing my memoir, filling in scenes from L.A. when I learned about the fires. I’ve lived in so many places, but I always claim my city when people ask where I’m from. Heartbroken for everyone, for my friends, for the plants, trees, animals… Sharing some good memories here, and so much love 💙

Fuchsia flowers amid the greenery, in Marina del Rey 2019

Palm trees lining Angeles Vista blvd, bright blue sky backdrop, 2015

Ten writers facing the camera, in a palm-filled yard backdropped by the L.A. skyline, all dressed in white, 7 standing and three seated. From a reading organized by Khadijah Queen. L to R: Kima Jones, Natalie Graham, Hannah Sanghee Park, Ashaki Jackson, Jean Ho, Angela Fluornoy, Kate Durbin. Seated L to R: Khadijah, Elisabeth Houston, Lilliam Rivera. June 2015.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 02/01/2025

New year / new skies / new book on deck 🩵🩷🧡💙

Book cover for Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard. Image is of a large pink cloud in a blue sky over the city of Florence in 16th c. A large curved black paint stroke covers the middle of the cloud.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 03/12/2024

Just thinking about this gorgeous full moon, the night before my birthday in 2022 🖤🤍🩶🤍🩷

Full moon at night over the Bay of Angels, Nice, France

Full moon at dusk over the Bay of Angels, Nice, France

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 24/11/2024

A little corner of something new. Will take a few months to finish, but really enjoying the color and the path discovery. I have so much work to do, for sure. But in moments of overwhelm, painting is restorative in a way that stressing will never be.

Left 20% of a large abstract canvas on an easel in front of a tall monstera with morning light coming in from a window. Colors are shades of blue and green, plus purple and white. There are elongated petal shapes and lines, as well as paint blobs that haven’t connected to their form yet.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 20/11/2024

Some etchings I made, way back in 2007, in my artist era. These are the ones I didn’t feel were successful. Sold the others long ago. But—a reminder of the beauty of remainders 🖤🪹✨

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 18/11/2024

Good morning, fellow skydwellers—I have a book of essays coming out in January. I’ll be sharing some selected quotes in the coming months. You can pre-order at the link in my bio, or reach out to me for a digital review copy. ☕️🤎🍁🧡🌾📖

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 16/11/2024

Decided to paint a little. Just ~20 minutes freestyling on some old abandoned canvases, before I return to book editing. Not sure what else I’ll layer on them later, but made me happy just to play. If this finds you, I hope you give yourself permission to be delighted today 💚💜

Two 8 x 10 abstract unfinished canvases on an easel in front of a giant Monstera. One is pink, green, white, yellow, and blue. The other is purple, dark, blue, white, and pink.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 14/11/2024

Some films to help you prepare for what’s to come (but you could always just read any enslaved person’s narrative or biography and, you know, history books):

Film poster for the film They Live, with Rowdy Roddy Piper in the center, wearing special sunglasses and holding a firearm, surrounded by strange alien-looking people(?) with regular hair, metal eyes and skinless faces

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 11/11/2024

Teaching the 2nd half of this today. There’s an intense quote that opens ch.23: “Your teachers Are all around you. All that you perceive, All that you experience, All that is given to you or taken from you, All that you love or hate, need or fear Will teach you— If you will learn… Learn or die.”

Mirror image of Octavia Butler (hand on her hip, the other elbow perched on the shelf, wearing a white henley and looking directly at camera) on a book cover standing in front of a bookshelf, with Pothos leaves through the center

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 10/11/2024

“I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives.” Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange on the left, in colorful jewelry and braids, some red lipstick and a big smile. Khadijah Queen on the right, brown skin,, straight black hair and a gray coat.

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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 09/11/2024

Revisiting Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ DUB: Finding Ceremony right now, as a fortification practice 💙

Cover of DUB: finding ceremony by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Gray text on black background, with blue illustration. It looks like a bunch of disco balls on the front on the bottom, kind of abstracted, and a little bit like starlight.

A circle of black-and-white tree branches with a stripe of text across it that reads “losing it all”

Text of the poem giving instructions for screaming at the edge of the world, then realizing that is not the end. And going on to do what needs doing.

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