ABOUT POET & WRITER NAOMI FAST

NAOMI FAST was born in California, raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. She holds MA degrees from Portland State University in two areas of artful communication: one Creative Writing, the other Theater. She’s won several writing awards, including an Academy of American Poets Prize and The Shelley Reece Award. Her poem Kajiji Fires was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize.

Naomi’s first collection of “lite” poetry accompanied by black & white photography became available in 2015. Her portfolio lists other journals and anthologies her poetry’s been published in around the United States, including The Tucumcari Literary Review, San Fernando Poetry Journal, Dogwood, Empty Shoes, Pacific Yachting, and the ever popular ‘many more.’

Little known fact: Naomi’s first & only cartoon publication was when she was 16, in The Fresno Bee—but she keeps a file folder of unpublished cartoons that the New Yorker may or may not be interested in. (In this way, she has selfishly kept her sense of humor to herself. Maybe one day she’ll correct this terrible flaw, then write about it in the third person.)

A daily runner and cyclist, person who rides a bicycle, Naomi has captured much of her path on digital. Her aforementioned first book, Portland Light: Post-Industrial City Poems & Photography, contains “lite” poems & dark photography, exposing urban details of life in her beloved city, Portland, Oregon… aka the Rose City, aka Stumptown, aka simply, PDX. A city from which she’s moved away, incidentally… Some of her photographs are also posted at Flickr, on an occasional Lulu product, & right here:

Other work: among other things, Naomi’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, a Silicon Forest copy editor, crafted newsletters for Portland Area Theatre Alliance, penned river poetry while tending the quiet-ish office at a wooden boat repair company, and served on the editorial collective for VoiceCatcher, an anthology dedicated to Portland-area women’s writing & art.

She’s also done some work with fruits and vegetables and a very big knife. Maybe more about that someday…

Writers are never just writers.

Speaking of “more,” there are more books planned for the Portland Light series, which sold at select physical locations including Powell’s and Budd+Finn in Portland.

Contact info: To get in touch, send an email to naomifast(at)gmail(dot)com or check out Mastodon.

*www.naomifast.com was formerly www.wordstothewind.com, a domain she decided to release to the wind. Maybe it’ll come back to her someday.

Content © 2023 Naomi Fast