CAMILLE U. ADAMS, Ph.D.

C*****************@gmail.com       ♦        917-***-****         ♦        Brooklyn, NY           ♦           www.camilleuadams.com

 

BOOK PUBLICATION

How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian Memoir by Camille U. Adams

  • Restless Books, released August 19, 2025. Paperback and self-narrated audiobook everywhere books are sold

  • Finalist: Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing 2023; by Grace Talusan, Jiaming Tang, Ilan Stavans 

  • Amazon’s #1 Top New Release in Caribbean and Latin American Literature

  • Electric Literature: Best of 2025 Nonfiction List

  • CLMP List of Most Celebrated 2025 releases from independent presses

 

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

  • Best of the Net Nonfiction Winner (2024)

  • Inaugural Anaphora Arts Italy Fellowship (2024)

  • Restless Books Prize Finalist (2023)

  • 5× Pushcart Nominee (2023)

  • Graywolf CNF Prize Longlist (2022)

  • Inaugural Tin House Reading Fellowship (2023)

  • Inaugural Granta Nature Writing Fellowship (2023)

  • VONA Fellow (2022) • Roots Wounds Words Fellow (2023)

  • Erica Ellner Memorial Scholarship (2021)

  • McKnight Doctoral Fellow (2019-23)

  • Kweli Literary Festival Scholarship (2021),

  • Grubstreet BIPOC Scholarship (2021)

 

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., Creative Writing (Nonfiction) & Caribbean Literature— Florida State University, 2023        (Summa cum laude)

  • MFA, Poetry & Caribbean Literature — City College, CUNY, 2013                                                    (Magna cum laude)

  • Certified Professional Technical Communicator — STC NYC, 2018

  • Certificate, Publishing — Columbia Journalism School, 2009

  • B.A., Creative Writing and Africana & Puerto Rican Literature — Hunter College, CUNY, 2007       (Magna cum laude)

 

SELECT CREATIVE NONFICTION PUBLICATIONS

  •       The Common

  •       Kweli Journal – Pushcart Prize nomination

  •       XRAY Literary Magazine

  •       Passages North – Pushcart Prize nomination

  •       The Forge Literary Magazine – Best of the Net – nonfiction 2024 winner, Pushcart Prize nomination

  •       Variant Literature – Pushcart Prize nomination, Best of the Net nomination

  •       The Citron Review

  •       The Caribbean Writer

  •       Hippocampus Magazine – Pushcart Prize nomination, Best of the Net Nomination

  •       Reckon Review

  •       Awakening: Stories of Body & Consciousness

  •       ANMLY – Pushcart Prize nomination

 

PROGRAMME ACHIEVEMENTS

Inspiration for Founding — Tin House Reading Fellowship                                                 Portland, OR · 2023

  • Initially hand-selected as a juried reader for Tin House Summer Workshop 2023 based on exceptional alumni performance and editorial expertise in nonfiction, poetry, global literature, varying English forms.

  • Recognised for distinguished readership, craft, insight, and advocacy etc, resulting in Tin House leadership creating the inaugural Tin House Reading Fellowship

  • Fellowship launched with diverse reading fellows in the first cycle, expanding access for historically marginalised writers whose perspectives are underrepresented in mainstream publishing.

  • Secured the programme’s first cohort of international fellows, including writers across the Caribbean diaspora, broadening Tin House’s global literary footprint.

  • Expanded scope each subsequent year, supporting 20+ fellows to date through dedicated funding, mentorship, and platform visibility.

  • Marked upward institutional progression: invited as Generative Writing Workshop Leader for Tin House Autumn Workshop 2025 — leading cross-genre craft speculative workshop for mixed-level cohorts.

SELECT TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Nonfiction Workshop Faculty June, 2026 Abode Press: Virtual Retreat

  • Lead, teach, and design nonfiction workshop for writers of personal essay, memoir, travel, literary journalism and other creative nonfiction forms

  • Serve as juried reader and selector of nonfiction workshop participants admitted to the retreat.

  • Present craft talk and lecture on nonfiction writing for entire retreat

  • Proffer verbal and written feedback on submissions and one on one consultations with students.

Generative Speculative Writing Instructor for all genres                                                                                                                                                                                           October 2025              Tin House Autumn Workshop (synchronous online)   

  • Innovated, led cross-genre generative writing session, “Making Worlds From Mythology”; referencing Octavia Butler and Daniel José Older 

  • Designed and facilitated a high-impact speculative writing workshop fostering experimentation, risk-taking, and inclusive creative practice with focus on crafting magical realism that’s defined, innovative, has exigence & purpose

  • Collaborated with Tin House organisers to align session objectives with the programme’s equity-driven educational mission and long-term participant development.

  • Enthusiastically re-invited due to high success, student satisfaction & breakthroughs, organisation, insightful craft

 

(Private Academic Institution) — English Teacher: Literature & Creative Writing (NY, NY)                        2023–Present

  • Design and lead creative nonfiction and memoir-writing curricula rooted in western and global narrative arcs, voice, symbolism, pacing, and expressiveness; utilise trauma-informed and safe-space, equity-centred pedagogy.

  • Self-designed literature courses and developed curricula for 11th and 12th grade courses that include: 

    • Home & Memory and The Mother Wound & Migration with Unaccompanied; White Egrets; Lucy; The Joy Luck Club as the texts

    • Contextualising the Canon with Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, and The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Woman Warrior as the texts 

    • Speculating About the Past with The Memory Police; Ghostroots; The Village Weavers; and The Cemetery of Untold Stories as the texts 

    • Memoir as History Ourstory with Brother, I’m Dying; The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian; The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Crazy Brave as the texts.

  • Achieve status as teacher with most number of students awarded Scholastic gold and silver keys for their writing.

  • Mentor emerging writers through multi-stage drafting processes—narrative architecture, deep revision strategies, and voice cultivation across longer works. Encourage and guide young writers in submitting highly awarded work.

  • Develop and assess reading and writing sequences, workshop rubrics, and individualised writing plans for pupils.

  • Coordinate literary programming fostering community, including readings, craft talks, interdisciplinary workshops.

  • Create and maintain updated, informative, easily navigated Google Classrooms for each section and unit.

  • Serve as advisor for small groups, affinity groups, and host many one-on-one conferences to guide writing.

 

Creative Nonfiction & Literature Instructor — Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL                         2019 – 2023

  • Fully responsible for courses; in person and online synchronously & asynchronously, maintained full attendance

  • Created and taught undergraduate courses in creative nonfiction, personal essay, and research-driven narrative forms, emphasising process-based writing, elements of fiction, propulsion and cohesion, recursiveness and revision.

 

Freshman Composition & Rhetoric Instructor                                                                                                    2019 – 2023 

  • Florida State University, Department of English, Tallahassee, FL 

CUNY Start Developmental Reading/Writing Instructor                                                                                 2014 – 2019 

  • Kingsborough Community College at CUNY, Brooklyn, NY

English Tutor                                                                                                                                                              2014 – 2015

  • New York City College of Technology, CUNY, Brooklyn, NY

Adult Education Teacher                                                                                                                                            2013 – 2014

  • Highbridge Community Life Center, Bronx, NY

Senior English Tutor                                                                                                                                                  2005 – 2012

  • City College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College CUNY, New York City

English Tutor                                                                                                                                                   2009 – 2009

  • University Settlement, New York, NY                                                                                                                      

 

SELECT LIVE PANEL PRESENTATIONS

Invited Panelist — Miami Book Fair: “Read Caribbean” & “Memoirs & Histories of the Caribbean”                        November, 2025
Miami, FL · 200,000+ annual attendees (one of the largest literary festivals in the U.S.)

  • Selected for two major programs foregrounding Caribbean literature and storytelling. Will discuss the political, archival, and creative dimensions of memoir within a global diaspora, highlighting the narrative interventions of How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir.

Co-Panelist — Fall for the Book Festival: “Memoirs of the Caribbean”                                                                  October, 2025
Fairfax, VA · 10,000+ annual attendees

  • Invited contributor to a featured conversation on Caribbean autobiography, diasporic memory, and the role of life writing in shaping cultural history and public understanding of the region.

Featured Author, Specially Invited — Gladys Wine & Books                                                               October, 2025 Brooklyn, NY

  • Salon-style conversation foregrounding Caribbean memory, nature as nurturance, the craft of writing vulnerably, the psychology of belonging and going no contact, calling out abuse, the radical power of testimony on the page.

Organiser & Co-panelist — Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends Series: “BIPOC Debuts: Rewriting Histories”         September, 2025 Brooklyn, NY

  • Curated and produced a signature Bookends event at Café con Libros featuring debut authors Jared Lemus, Olufunke Grace Bankole, Tramaine Suubi, and myself.

  • Facilitated dynamic conversation on narrative sovereignty, intergenerational memory, and challenging colonial silences within the publishing landscape.

  • Built strategic partnership with an iconic feminist bookstore amplifying diverse literary voices.

Moderator — “Silence In Stories”, Brooklyn Book Festival                                                                  September, 2025 Brooklyn NY

  • Moderator: “Silence in Stories” with Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Santiago Amigorena, and Madeleine Thien—developed panel framing and facilitated dialogue on narrative omission and political silences.

  • Curator & Organiser: “BIPOC Debuts: Rewriting Histories”—conceptualised and produced a Bookends event amplifying debut authors of colour and re-centering diasporic histories.

Featured Author & Event Partner, Books Are Magic — In Conversation with Nadia Owusu                                August, 2025

  • Co-created a public dialogue on hybridity, displacement, and immigrant identity in nonfiction.

  • Collaborated with independent press and bookstore teams on event framing, audience outreach, and community engagement strategies.

 

Featured Author & Programme Collaborator, Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF)                                 August, 2025

  • Designed run of show and headlined “For the Tender Spirit: How To Be Unmothered—Readings to Launch,” a cross-genre event integrating memoir, poetry, and Caribbean storytelling.

  • Partnered with festival to build inclusive programming on Caribbean women’s narratives and diaspora studies.

 

Featured Author & Event Planner, Word Up Community Bookshop — In Conversation with Jaquira Díaz          August, 2025

  • Developed and led a public conversation on How To Be Unmothered, exploring Caribbean identity, gendered trauma, and the memoir form as social testimony.

  • Collaborated with to design a community-centered event highlighting Latinx and Caribbean diasporic narratives.

  • Advanced goals of literary access and cultural engagement through trauma-informed, audience-inclusive discussion.

Panelist — AWP: “Abroad as an Escape: International Exchange and Trauma-Informed Writing”                       April, 2025 Los Angeles, CA

  • Contributed scholarship-driven insights on global fellowships, literary migration, and safeguarding creative risk in workshop spaces.

  • Discussed impacts of writing about home while not dwelling in one’s home country; interacted with audience probing ideas of exile.

Moderator — Tin House Summer Workshop Panel: “How To Sustain Narrative Tension”                              July, 2024 Portland, OR

  • Thoroughly read memoir, novel, and YA books in preparation for in-depth discussion on the craft used in each text

  • Devised insightful, generative, student-centered inquiries to pose whereupon the replies provided strong craft instruction for attendees

  • Humourously, congenially, empathetically guided craft dialogue with Safiya Sinclair, Vanessa Chan & Aiden Thomas on tension, structure, and interplay of interiority and form.

Moderator & Host — (Private School) Poetry Assembly                                                                                         2024 New York, NY

  • Read the work of and attended presentation of Caribbean authors; selected Trinidadian poet, Mervyn Taylor, as great option for poetry assembly

  • Corresponded with, organised tech, communicated with students, and maintained streamlined production of poetry assembly

  • Aided in workshop with select group pf students after main assembly; served as facilitator in discussion and writing exercises featuring Caribbean poetics, music, and intergenerational storytelling.

    Moderator — Tin House Winter Workshop: Debut Prose Writers Panel                                                                 2023 Online synchronous

  • Curated specific, concrete, and helpful questions for Daphne Palasi Andreades, Gerardo Sámano Córdova & Prince Shakur on debut publishing landscapes and sustaining creative networks.

  • Moderated engaging panel, guiding a dynamic conversation among three published authors on their journey to publishing. and the trajectory of their debut.

  • Developed key discussion topics, managed time efficiently, and facilitated engaging dialogue between panelists and an audience of over 150 attendees.

  • Coordinated with panelists ahead of the event to ensure a cohesive and informative session, resulting in positive attendee feedback.

SELECT PODCAST & INSTAGRAM LIVE INTERVIEWS

Featured Guest on podcast — Let’s Talk Memoir with Ronit Plank                                                January 2025

  • Read lyrical, musical excerpt and engaged in deep dive into the poetics in my memoir How To Be Unmothered

  • Examined structure, methodologies of conjuring memory, ways of writing without self cannibalisation and retraumatisation, self care while writing

  • Discussed vulnerability and interiority in writing episodes of child abuse; importance of logos; incorporation of Caribbean oral narrative in memoir form.

Featured Guest on IG Live — Game Changers with Fabian Lyon December 2025

  • Discussed: “The Deification of Motherhood: Why, Where, When, Who, and What the Effects of Such Worship Are

  • Probed the reasons why and the impacts of going no-contact with abusive family

  • Examined memories of parentification, domestic abuse, and maternal abandonment

  • Humourously considered ways in which Caribbean writing includes levity, cultural mores, and rhythmic language

Featured Guest on IG Live — BrownGirlBookLover w/ LeslieAnn Murray                                                                    October 2025

  • Connected with readers on literary craft, how to “create dangerously”, and the urgency of unveiling unmothering.

  • Conversed about particulars of Caribbean syntax, idioms, Trinidadian picong, dramatic storytelling elements in Trinidadian dialogue

  • Energetically debated pathologisation of bad mothers, pondered legacy of unmothering throughout the Caribbean, probed the ancestry of neglect

Featured Guest on podcast— Arts Calling with Jaime Alejandro Cruz (Episodes 81 & 169)                                             2023 and 2025

  • Spoke at length on episode 81 while drafting How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir about intial formatting and through line versus revised compilation

  • Discussed impact of writing as a Black Trinidadian woman enrolled in a PWI doctoral programme; celebrated ways to be true to your own voice
    Returned on episode 169 after How To Be Unmothered published, dicussed crafting, editing, fearless publishing, and life changing exigence that propelled the work.

  • Delved into particulars of crafting poetry-memoir, honouring Caribbean traditions, and the power of archival work in unearthing family history for How To Be Unmothered.

Featured Guest on podcast — Chills At Will with Peter Riehl                                                                                                                 2025

  • Explored the political and personal dimensions of unmothering, navigating grief, allowing for the expression of rage, and the power of revelation

  • Conversed about the craft of writing trauma beautifully and artfully; not trauma dumping on the reader; knowing when the writer is ready to tell and tackle abuse

  • Focussed on the praxis of not changing names, places, dates, etc; talked about ways of integrating generational history and necessity of such inclusion.

Featured Guest on podcast— Emerging Writers Community with Joy Notoma (Episode 7)                                                           2024

  • Discussed sustaining a creative life, writing authentically, and community for marginalised nonfiction voices.

  • Contemplated the purpose of rage in writing; how to write honestly without maintaining toxic secrecy.

  • Talked about unmothering in the African diaspora, ways in which eldest daughters may feel beholden to concealing dysfunction; how to write somatically.

EDITORIAL ROLES

                                                              

  • Nonfiction Editor — Variant Literature

  • Assistant Memoir Editor — Split Lip Magazine

  • Assistant Nonfiction Editor —The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought

  • Poetry and Nonfiction Reader — Callaloo

  • Juried Poetry, Nonfiction, YA, and Speculative Reader for and Tin House Workshops

SCHOLARLY WRITING, RESEARCH, AND TEACHING INTERESTS

  • Global Literatures: Prose and Poetry and African Diasporic Literature and Art

  • Postcolonial Literature and community-centered workshopping

  • Ecological and Nature based writing, study, and literature

  • Anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, sociological analysis of late-stage capitalism effects globally

  • Popular digital media, social media as a sociological and psychological lens

  • Folklore, mythology, fairy tales, oral narratives, griot storytelling, refuting the single-story

  • Somatic inquiry: the body as a site of memory, knowledge, portal, revelation.