Chandanie Somwaru was born and raised in Queens, New York to a Guyanese father and a Trinidadian mother. Being immersed in the vibrant Caribbean community in Queens, Chandanie’s writing represents the celebrations, survivals, and mysticality of languages and storytelling that flourishes in what she calls home.

 

In 2021, Somwaru published a chapbook with Ghostbird Press titled Urgent \\ Where the Mind Goes \\ Scattered. Her writing has been published (sometimes under the name Ashley Somwaru) with Poem-A-Day, Honey Literary, Solstice, SWWIM, The Margins, and elsewhere. She was the first runner-up of the 2023 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award.

 

She received her MFA at Queens College in poetry and is currently a PhD student at the University of Hawai’i.