About Swing State
In the 1950s, my father was a student revolutionary in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), and consequently, I grew up in a household where the philosophy of government was a frequent topic of conversation. I lived on the East Coast for fifteen years, and in San Francisco for the last four, and it's amazing how being in a city that's so in line with my own politics can make me forget to think politically sometimes. I wrote "Swing State" in tears after the 2004 presidential election. It is an episode from my second book, Writing Home (in progress), and was originally published in SoMa Lit Review. Writing Home is a multi-genre collection of short stories, photographs, and poetry, spanning five countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, America, and Thailand) and exploring the theme of perspective.
Abeer Hoque was born in Nigeria to Bangladeshi parents and moved to America when she was in high school. She has BS and MA degrees in Information Systems from the Wharton School, and an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. This past summer, she gave up her San Francisco apartment, and everything in it, to become a nomad. She is currently living in Bangkok, and heads to Bangladesh and Barcelona in 2006. Her first book, Olive Witch, An American Dream, won the 2005 Tanenbaum Award in Creative Nonfiction (given to emerging California writers with unpublished manuscripts). Excerpts from Olive Witch, as well as other short stories and poems, have been published in Prose Ax, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Switchback, Bullfight Review, the Daily Star, and ZYZZYVA. For links to these and other stories and photographs, visit Abeer's web site (at olivewitch.com).
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