​Representation
Serendipity Literary Agency 
Picture
2016 Women's March

​Kirsten Imani Kasai 
​believes that poetry and fiction should be challenging, emotionally stimulating and intellectually nourishing.  An avowed feminist, she's dedicated to her mission of celebrating literature as a change agent that can push us beyond our comfort zones, break us open and put us back together.
     A mixed (Black and white) woman with Southern and Midwestern roots,  she's inspired to explore cultural and theological intersections through her writing. She strives to redefine prevalent cultural images of women and motherhood; to question the nature of gender roles; to establish a feminine vision of the future not rooted in technological alienation and destruction; and, of course, to write killer stories that satisfy our natural human lust for action, sex, love, violence and intrigue.
     Her areas of expertise and interest include: women's and feminist literature, utopias & dystopias in pop culture and literature, the Hero's Journey, genre fiction (historical, dark fantasy & sci-fi, speculative fiction, horror and Gothic), literary and commercial fiction, fairy tales, mythology, folklore, and hybrid, experimental and multi-genre prose. 
      She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and certification in the Teaching of Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She teaches graduate Creative Writing, Literature, and Editing and Publishing courses at San Diego State University and Southern New Hampshire University. Kirsten lives with her family in California, where she quietly advocates for introverts' rights.

    Contact Kirsten

Interviews

  • Drunk on Ink, Jaggery Lit  "I read Carrie by Stephen King multiple times and remember sitting in my room, intently practicing my telekinesis. I was never able to bend a spoon or move an object from across the room, but oh! How desperately I tried!"
  • The Nervous Breakdown self-interview
  • Read to Write Stories:  The Slide That Passes Through Two Dark Rooms: An interview with Kirsten Imani Kasai
  • Books Q&A with Deborah Kalb: "I wanted to examine the distressing history of the hierarchical race and caste systems of the American South during Antebellum times and how they influenced our conceptions of privilege, belonging and identity today."
  • 2019 San Diego Writers Festival​ "I’m a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe and wanted to evoke the sensual and textural ambiance of his works. For me, The House of Erzulie embodies catharsis and transformation — welcome or unwelcome — and the journeys we take that lead us away from, or bring us back to, ourselves.
  • Write Through the Roof with Madeleine D'Este podcast  "I like grit and blood and meat in my work."
  • The Slide That Passes Through Two Dark Rooms: An interview with Kirsten Imani Kasai  In this interview, Kasai talks about structuring storylines that take place in different years, using an epistolary narrative, and writing against the usual tropes in the novel’s portrayal of vodou.
  • San Diego Voyager "Inspiring Stories" I embrace the motto, “She who dares, wins.” But, in the case of creative writing, I say, “She who perseveres, publishes.”
  • ​Art with a Purpose @ Lumiere Lit "Literature is a change agent. It should shake us up, push us beyond our comfort zones and break us open or put us back together. It is the mirror, the lens—a coalescing beam that can illuminate, clarify, reflect or ignite. "
  • The Body Horror Book, Oscillate Wildly Press "I believe that people have a latent, subconscious horror of being imprisoned in their own bodies. Depending on your metaphysical philosophy, if you believe that we are all elemental conglomerations of energy and spirit put on this planet to experience earthly lessons, then our natural state is bodiless, not embodied. Think of it this way—when you board a ride at an amusement park, you cannot leave the vehicle until the ride is over, no matter whether you’re having a great time or a miserable one. I think inhabiting a body is the same. We are enslaved by its limitations and demands. And when you really begin to understand the science of the mind-body connection, it’s clear that we’re locked in this quasi-pathological symbiosis with another organism which has its own agendas, rules, and processes. That in itself is kind of terrifying, don’t you think?"
  • My Writing Process Blog Tour "I like to write stories that leave 'what happened?' open to interpretation, like a puzzle you can return to and solve in new ways each time. I believe fiction should be challenging, emotionally stimulating and intellectually nourishing."
  • RICK KLEFFEL'S AGONY COLUMN
  • Coffee Time Romance "Little children view the world in such malleable terms. They exist within a very flexible reality and are open to believing just about anything. I think one of the primary functions of storytelling is to keep the magical part of our brains active, to create a portal between our rational adult selves and our dreamy, early selves."
  • Color Online  "A single mother has to take on whatever heroics are necessary and force herself past any limitations in order to succeed. Sorykah has doubts, fears and a lot of anxiety about the world, but she refuses to let those obstacles define her."
  • Romance Review Today "The muse is fickle. She has to be leashed and trained if she's to be cooperative."
  • UnboundWorlds.com "We each seek to balance the dark and light in us, to achieve homeostasis and become whole by continually integrating our experiences and emotions into our perception of self and our place in the universe. "  
  • The Educated Writer "I’ve really learned to listen to the characters and to allow the story to develop at its own pace. It’s a dance, a romance. There should be a constant edge of surprise and hopefulness in the process of discovering the characters, their desires, motivations and flaws."​
  • Shared Worlds Project: Hand in Hand author advice