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Nadia Q. Ahmad

@aminad1a

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Poet, writer, editor, & workshop facilitator 📍Queens, NY. she/her

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Thank you to @aminad1a for leading us to consider the unyielding, to converse with stone, and to call out the forces that would bury us. 🔥🪨💪🏽

Thank you to everyone who listened so carefully and with openness to what we shared.

Thank you to @moorejacksonnyc for this space for contemplation and creativity.

Thank you to the weather gods for giving us such a gorgeous fall afternoon.

This was the last session of the season, but we’ll be back soon! by @aminad1a

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9 days ago

The Moore Jackson Community Garden welcomes Nadia Q. Ahmad to Poems in the Garden!

Nadia Q. Ahmad is a poet, writer, editor, and workshop instructor from Queens. Her work appears in publications such as QUEENSBOUND, The Shoreline Review, and Indiana Review. She has received awards from Aspen Words and the Fine Arts Work Center, and is a VONA/Voices and Kweli Journal workshop alum. Her professional roles have included senior copy editor at Eater, editorial fellow at Poets & Writers, and program associate at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW). Born and raised in New York City, Nadia is of Bangladeshi descent. She has more than 15 years of experience with local grassroots arts organizations and initiatives, including the Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts (BIPA) and AAWW. She has also received a Neighborhood Leadership Award from Chhaya CDC. nadiaqahmad.com @aminad1a

Link in bio to register for October 10th at 3PM! by @aminad1a

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18 days ago

This Wednesday, September 23 at 7pm! BKBF Bookend event with @_queensbound_ poets! We wrote a poem together on ~~~ *resonance* ~~~ come hear it at @theworldsboroughbookshop!

🗣️ @pichchendabaopoet @m_a_dennis575 @afutureancient @jaredharel @olivewitch @anandalima @marigoldtief #saharromani @kctrommer Poster is in green and white text on a dark background inviting everyone to a Queensbound exquisite corpse poetry reading at the World’s Borough Bookshop on Wednesday, Sep. 23 at 7pm. The address is 3406 73rd Street, Jackson Heights. The readers are Nadia Q. Ahmad, Pichchenda Bao, M.A. Dennis, Sherese Francis, Jared Harel, Abeer Hoque, Ananda Lima, Nadia Misir, Sahar Romani, and KC Trommer. by @aminad1a

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a month ago

We’re excited to announce the first session of Joton, our creative and embodied self-care workshop series!

Storytelling, reflection, and expression can be useful tools for healing, grounding, and self-discovery. Generative writing, sometimes also called prewriting, is a part of the writing process that focuses on getting the words out (generating them) rather than creating a polished draft. In this writing workshop for Joton, we’ll talk about obstacles to self-care and explore creative writing as one potential way to take care of your mental health by getting the thoughts onto the page.

This workshop will be facilitated by Nadia Q. Ahmad (@aminad1a ). Nadia is a poet, writer, editor, and workshop instructor born and raised in New York City, living in Queens.

📅 Sunday, July 12
🕒 11am to 1pm
📍Greats of Craft - LIC Warehouse (10-15 43rd Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101).
🎟️ FREE! Registration link in bio

To help create a workshop that best supports participants, we ask that everyone complete a brief form linked in the Eventbrite page before attending. Your responses will help the facilitator better understand participants’ experiences, perspectives, and goals. All responses will be kept confidential. by @aminad1a

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4 months ago

Yep, that is a 300-pound tuna. 🤯

Eater staffers Sergio Scardigno (@sergescardigno) and the Nadias — Nadia Chaudhury (@nadiachaudhury) and Nadia Q. Ahmad (@aminad1a) — spent an ideal Saturday together eating unlimited sushi and making puns galore at Sushi-Con (@sushicon_official) in NYC. Follow along as they make their way through the largest sushi expo in the U.S., trying everything from melt-in-your-mouth fatty tuna, unheated soy sauce, and much more.

🎥: Sergio Scardigno (@sergescardigno) by @aminad1a

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a year ago

Join us Qns poets this Wednesday, September 17, 2025 for a reading in Jackson Heights — we wrote a poem together about “renegade.” ❤️‍🔥 You’ll be supporting us and the life of @bkbookfest Bookend events, and also the wonderful @theworldsboroughbookshop! 💌 RSVP at link in bio. A photo of a fiery sunset. Text on flyer reads:

“Queens Poets on Renegade
An official 2025 Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends event
Wednesday
Sept. 17, 2025 7:00 pm
World's Borough Bookshop
Jackson Heights
Queens
FEATURING QUEENS POETS:
Abeer Y. Hoque
allia abdullah-matta
Dena Igusti
Isabel Díaz Alanís
Jennifer Cendaña Armas
JoliAmour DuBose-Morris
Luvon Roberson nadia misir
Nadia Q. Ahmad
Sherese Francis
Join us to hear a new original exquisite corpse poem
RENEGADE” by @aminad1a

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a year ago

Hi hi, been a minute. I don’t have a ton to say right now, except that it’s devastating and enraging to watch how media workers and journalists are continuously being stripped of their integrity and power and livelihood, to say nothing of those whose literal lives are taken from them, at every turn, in every field.

My current day job is as a copy editor at Eater, and just last Thursday, 15 of my colleagues at Eater, Punch, and Thrillist were laid off in the company’s second “restructuring” in less than 10 months.

I’ve been meaning to bring back Your Writing Life workshops, with partial proceeds going to mutual aid initiatives whenever possible, and here we are. I intend to donate 30% of proceeds from the next two sessions to the @voxmediaunion’s efforts to support those in this latest round of layoffs. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. 🌺 Come meet fellow writers, get the pen moving, and hopefully leave with some tools to help you work through that thing we call “writer’s block.” Registration info above, and also at the link in bio. Orange flyer with transparent hibiscus flower in the background. It reads: “Your Writing Life - 2025. Facilitator: Nadia Q. Ahmad. Generative writing workshops! Thursday, Aug. 21 - 6-8pm ET
Saturday, Aug. 23 - 2-4pm ET
via Zoom // Register: bit.ly/ywl-aug-25
• $25 per session, or $40 for both
• 30% of proceeds will be donated to the Vox Media Union's latest GoFundMe campaign for laid-off workers
• No one will be turned away for lack of funds” by @aminad1a

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a year ago

If you want some inspo, to meet other writers, or to get that writing muscle warmed up again, Your Writing Life generative writing workshops are back! Register via link in bio. I intend to donate 25% of any proceeds to Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM). Check out their work at @drumnyc

You can sign up once and then attend any or all sessions! Up to you! Link in bio.

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A flyer with a light green background, with a silhouette of tree branches. Text reads:
Generative Writing Workshops!
Facilitator: Nadia Q. Ahmad

Wednesdays; Aug. 9, 16, 23
7-9 p.m. ET via Zoom

RSVP: bit.ly/43LfJXK

Free, or sliding scale
Suggested: $15-$45

25% of proceeds will be donated to Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)

Contact: yourwritinglifeworkshop@gmail.com A flyer with a light green background, with a silhouette of tree branches. Text reads:
Generative Writing Workshops!
Facilitator: Nadia Q. Ahmad

Wednesdays; Aug. 9, 16, 23
7-9 p.m. ET via Zoom

RSVP: bit.ly/43LfJXK

Free, or sliding scale
Suggested: $15-$45

25% of proceeds will be donated to Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)

Contact: yourwritinglifeworkshop@gmail.com by @aminad1a

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3 years ago

Saturday, June 10, noon-6pm: If you’re feeling well and willing and able, come by to our second @artiststudioswoodside event!! BRING EVERYONE!!! All the artists who have workspaces here will open our doors for you to visit, look at artwork, ask about our process, and meet new people! Visit my studio (in Mondo) and leave with a poem from me if you want one. 🌺 My studio mate, the stellar Neha Gautam @resistandrise, will be sharing about her films too! 📝 🎥

I’m currently fortunate enough to be able to rent a workspace at @artiststudioswoodside, along with about 20 or so other amazing creative Queens people. Costanza Musumeci designed this awesome graphic and Dan Selzer edited & got them printed.

Check out @artiststudioswoodside for full info.
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Slide 1 reads, “WOODSIDE OPEN STUDIOS // Social: @artiststudioswoodside #artiststudioswoodside artiststudioswoodside[at]gmail[dot]com // Transportation: M/R lines to Northern Blvd., Q66 bus // Mondo - 33-55 55th St, Woodside // Heptagon - 33-46 55th St, Woodside”

Slide 2 reads, “Woodside Open Studios is a joint event of the artists working at Mondo and Heptagon Studios located at the intersection of Jackson Heights, Woodside, and Sunnyside in Queens. We are excited to open our spaces to the public for the first time on the afternoon of Saturday, June 10, 2023, 12-6. We represent a wide range of artistic paths-from visual art, design, and photography to Ding and poetry-as well as our community's many particular experiences and voices. We can't wait for you to stop by, so we can introduce ourselves and our work to the neighborhood! Both studios are located on the 2nd floor of their respective buildings (across the street from one another) and are accessible only via stairs.” Slide 1 reads, “WOODSIDE OPEN STUDIOS // Social: @artiststudioswoodside #artiststudioswoodside artiststudioswoodside[at]gmail[dot]com // Transportation: M/R lines to Northern Blvd., Q66 bus // Mondo - 33-55 55th St, Woodside // Heptagon - 33-46 55th St, Woodside” by @aminad1a

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3 years ago

Latest reads - March-April 2023. “Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice” by Kazim Ali (Tupelo Press, 2011; cover designed by Josef Beery using an iStockphoto with permission)
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My 12th read! So grateful for your words, Kazim, and the space you create. 🌷 Belated Eid Mubarak to anyone who wishes to receive the greeting!! 🌱
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@kazimalipoet @tupelopress
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Cover text reads “Fasting for Ramadan// Kazim Ali// Notes from a Spiritual Practice” in white lettering against a mostly blue and yellow concentric Islamic geometric design, evoking the inside of a dome with a ray of light coming through. The book sits on a green and white woven rug. by @aminad1a

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3 years ago

Grateful to be rereading @kazimalipoet’s “Fasting For Ramadan: Notes From a Spiritual Practice” again this year; I’ve been reading it every Ramzan since 2012, so this is the 12th year. Wow. It’s amazing to find moments that feel familiar and also slightly different, sometimes even noticing things I somehow hadn’t before. Wishing everyone a beautiful month. 🌙🕋📿
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Text on this page is from the preface. It reads, “If the first (and written later) portion of this book is read as the mind's reaching out, with the intention of external communication, then the second (and written earlier) portion could be understood as grounded in the body and the body's experience, which was internal, a practice of reflection.

“Of course, always there is traffic between reflection and expression, as between the mind and the body, between god and human, between past and present, between the external system of the world and the internal system of the so-called self.

“Why two books belong between the same…” Text from preface of “Fasting For Ramadan” by Kazim Ali.

“If the first (and written later) portion of this book is read as the mind's reaching out, with the intention of external communication, then the second (and written earlier) portion could be understood as grounded in the body and the body's experience, which was internal, a practice of reflection.
Of course, always there is traffic between reflection and expression, as between the mind and the body, between god and human, between past and present, between the external system of the world and the internal system of the so-called self.
Why two books belong between the same…” by @aminad1a

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4 years ago

Latest reads - December 2022 - March 2023. “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion” by Bushra Rehman, cover artwork by Kimberly Glyder (Flatiron Books, 2022)
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@writerbushra @flatiron_books
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It was so nice to be a part of @writerbushra’s last launch event for “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion.” It’s been a while since a book made me cry. 🥲 Thank you Bushra for writing Razia — so many of us need her! 💜 Honored to have read some new poems in the company of these other qns writers in Jackson Heights’s Viva La Heights and grateful to them and their beautiful work: @jfinch57 @christinekandictorres @dulani_jai @patriciapark718 @somunshi
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I first met Bushra, and so many others who read and attended this reading, 10 years ago!! in her Two Truths and a Lie autobiographical fiction class. I remember Bushra telling us, “What makes you a writer is that you write” and I would remind myself of that a lot in the coming years as I slowly began to vocalize this part of my identity and dream more and more, even when I didn’t feel like I had much to “show” for it.
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1. Cover text reads “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion// Bushra Rehman” in black lettering against a beige background with geometric roses winding and blooming in different directions. The book sits partly on a shimmery golden fabric and partly on a black fabric with white stitching, next to a small golden signet ring with a rose stamped onto it.

2. & 3. Seven smiling Queens writers pose for a group photo in front of a lattice wall with decorative flowers and a poster of a bookshelf. Cover text reads “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion// Bushra Rehman” in black lettering against a beige background with geometric roses winding and blooming in different directions. The book sits partly on a shimmery golden fabric and partly on a black fabric with white stitching, next to a small golden signet ring with a rose stamped onto it. by @aminad1a

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4 years ago