Author Bio
Zohra Saed is an Afghan-born, Brooklyn-based writer and scholar from the Turkestan diaspora whose work explores Central Asian history, cultural memory, migration, and inheritance. She is 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 & Notebooks from Turkestan, 1932–1933 (Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative).
Saed’s original archival research on Langston Hughes and Central Asia has received numerous competitive research awards and fellowships. These include a Beinecke Library Research Fellowship from Yale University, a Schomburg Digitization Fellowship from the New York Public Library and CUNY, an IRADAC Dissertation Fellowship, and a Schomburg Scholar-in-Residence Award from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2026, she received a PSC-CUNY Research Award to study Turkic materials at the British Library for her book in progress on Hughes’s encounters with the writers of Soviet Central Asia. She was recognized as a 2026 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship finalist in Nonfiction Literature. Her current projects include a book on Hughes’s encounters with the writers of Soviet Central Asia and a novel rooted in Uzbek storytelling and textile traditions.
Saed is a Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College and a Lost & Found Faculty Editor and Mentor at the CUNY Graduate Center. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College and a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center.
Interview with Cholpon Ramizova on my Lost & Found chapbook Langston Hughes in Soviet Turkestan 1932-1933: Poems, Photos, Notebooks (2015)
Research & Teaching Areas
Decolonial Studies; South Asian Literatures; Afghanistan & Central Asia Studies; Diaspora & Migration; Afro-Asian Intellectual Thought; Black Internationalism; Comparative World Literature; Visual Culture & Film; Postcolonial Theory; Archival Studies.
Book Manuscript
From Harlem to Samarqand: Langston Hughes’ Unfinished Book on Central Asia, manuscript in progress.
Poetry Chapbooks
Woman. Hand/Pen. Belladonna Collaborative, Poetry Chaplet #217, 2017.
Sheyr Jangi: Poetic Duels Poetry Deck. City Lore/Ping Chong & Co., 2016.
Misspelled Cities / Falsch Geschriebene Städte: Notebook #105. With Sahar Muradi.
Published for dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany, 2012.
Books
Langston Hughes: Poems, Photographs and Notebooks from Turkestan.
Lost & Found Series V Notebook, Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center, 2015. Editor.
One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan American Literature.
University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Co-Editor.
Peer-Reviewed Academic 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, Spring 2026.
“Entwined Poetics: Langston Hughes’ Travels to Soviet Central Asia.” Gazette: The Archives Revisited. Edited by Tatsiana Shchurko. Ohio State University. 2023.
“Heart Heat, Ishq, Eros, and Radical Love in the Art of Laimah Osman, Gazelle Samizay, and Sahar Muradi.” 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.
Literary Nonfiction Essays
“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.
Fellowships & Awards
Finalist, NYFA-NYSCA Recognition for literary nonfiction combining oral history, “An Other Afghanistan: Indigeneity, Migration, and Belonging in Andkhoy.” Decolonizing Afghanistan: Countering Imperial Knowledge and Power, ed. W. Osman & R. Crews. Duke University Press. (2026)
PSC CUNY Research Award for Research at The British Library on Turkic material for developing book on Langston Hughes (2026).
Schomburg Scholar in Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (2023)
OSUN Fellowship, Bard College, American University in Central Asia, 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)
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)
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)
Languages
Uzbek (native); Dari/Farsi (heritage); Hindi & Urdu (advanced listening comprehension); Turkish (basic); Arabic (elementary)
