Author Bio
Zohra Saed is the co-editor of One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature (University of Arkansas Press) and editor of Langston Hughes: Poems, Photos and Notebook from Turkestan (Lost & Found, The CUNY Poetics Documents Initiative). She is a Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College and Lost & Found Faculty Editor and Mentor at the CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Saed received her MFA in Poetry at Brooklyn College and her PhD at The City University of New York Graduate School.
Zohra Saed was born in Afghanistan and comes from the Turkestan diaspora. Her writing travels from Marghelan to Tashkent, from Jalalabad to Riyadh to New York, carrying stories of identity, inheritance, and belonging across borders and generations.
Interview with Cholpon Ramizova on my Lost & Found chapbook Langston Hughes in Soviet Turkestan 1932-1933: Poems, Photos, Notebooks (2015)
The New Books on Central Asia Podcast (UK) seems to have connected to the Afghan American anthology, the link to purchasing the chapbook HERE
Research & Teaching Areas
Decolonial Studies; South Asian Literatures; Global Anglophone; Afghanistan & Central Asia Studies; Diaspora & Migration; Black Intellectual Thought; Black Internationalism; Comparative World Literature; Visual Culture & Film; Postcolonial Theory; Archival Humanities; Public Humanities.
Book Manuscript in Progress
Langston Hughes’ Notebooks and Photos in Soviet Central Asia 1932-1933 Manuscript in progress. A book manuscript examining Langston Hughes’ travels in Soviet Central Asia and their significance within Black internationalism, Central Asian Poetics, and decolonial modernity.
Books and Chapbooks
Woman. Hand/Pen. Belladonna Collaborative, Chaplet #217, 2017.
Sheyr Jangi: Poetic Duels Poetry Deck. City Lore/Ping Chong & Co., 2016.
Langston Hughes: Poems, Photographs and Notebooks from Turkestan. Lost & Found Series V, Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center, 2015. Editor.
Misspelled Cities / Falsch Geschriebene Städte: Notebook #105. With Sahar Muradi. Published for dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany, 2012.
One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature. University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Co-Editor.
Peer-Reviewed Chapters & Essays
“An Other Afghanistan: Indigeneity, Migration, and Belonging in Andkhoy.” Decolonizing Afghanistan: Countering Imperial Knowledge and Power, ed. W. Osman & R. Crews. Duke University Press, 2025.
“Afghan Americans in New York City Post-9/11.” The Multimedia Textbook on Asian American Pacific Islanders, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 2026.
“Heart Heat, Ishq, Eros, and Radical Love in the Art of Laimah Osman, Gazelle Samizay, and SaharMuradi.” Hyphenations: Muslim Writers, Artists, and Performers in America, ed. Mahwash Shoaib. Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
“Samsa in Sheepshead Bay: Central Asian Foodprints in Southern Brooklyn.” Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader, ed. R. Ku, A. Mannur, and M. Manalansan. NYU Press, 2013.
“Historic Survey of the Educational System in Afghanistan.” International Education Encyclopedia, ed. Daniel Ness and Chia-ling Lin. M.E. Sharpe, 2012.
Nonfiction Essays
“Entwined Poetics: Langston Hughes’ Travels to Soviet Central Asia.” Gazette: The Archives Revisited. Edited by Tatsiana Shchurko. Ohio State University. 2023.
“On Love and Meandering in the Art of Aphrodite Désirée Navab.” Landmines of Memory, Addison Gallery of Art, 2021.
“Langston Hughes in Turkestan.” Asterix Journal Presents: Kitchen Table Translations, 2017.
“Found in Translation: Langston Hughes from Harlem to Samarqand.” Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art, 2017.
“Gazelle Samizay…” Contemporary Practices: Visual Arts from the Middle East, Vol. VII, 2011.
Editorial Appointments
Faculty Editor and Mentor, Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetic Documents Initiative, Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center (2022–present)
Co-Founder & Editor, Upset Press Inc., distributed by University of Arkansas Press (2001–present)
Fellowships & Awards
Schomburg Scholar in Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (2023) Ford Foundation.
OSUN Fellowship, Bard College / American University in Central Asian / Al-Quds Universities (2021)
IRADAC Dissertation Fellowship, CUNY (2016–2017)
Schomburg Digitization Fellowship, NYPL/CUNY (2014–2015)
Beinecke Library Research Fellowship, Yale University (2013–2014)
Invited Talks & Events (selected)
TEDxCUNY • Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center • MoMA • Asia Society • NYU
Kevorkian Center • Poets House • PEN America • American University of Central Asia • Maysles
Documentary Center • BRIC • The Green Space
(Full list available upon request)
Zohra Saed 