Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani

Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani, a native of New Orleans, is a distinguished writer and spirit woman. Her work has been featured in notable publications like The Crab Orchard Review, Dark Eros, Essence Magazine, and Chicken Bones: A Literary Journal. She is the author of several plays, including Crows Feet, Bourbon, and Men of the AmonRa Society, and co-writer/director of Brown Blood Black Womb. She received the Southern Black Theatre Festival’s 2012-2013 Playwright of the Year award for her play, Spring Chickens.

In 2008, Mawiyah earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. Beyond her writing, she is a respected educator, an 8th Generation Witch, and a Priestess of OYA in the Yoruba spiritual system, addressed as Iyanifa Faniyi Aboyade Omobola Bomani. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Oya N'Soro, an e-zine dedicated to culture and Afrikan Traditional Spirituality.

Mawiyah currently resides in Louisiana, where she conducts Orisa rituals, spiritual consultations, workshops, and divinations. She is working on two new projects: a middle-grade series, The Cool Beans Ghost Hunter Society, which features special needs superheroes, and Dead Man Stew, a poetry collection inspired by Tarot. Mawiyah is also the host of the podcast FishHeadsinRedGravy, which celebrates marginalized people in the esoteric and occult world. She is a recipient of the Critical Mass 8 Literary Award and the KAT Artist Residency. Mawiyah is the author of two books published by Llewellyn Worldwide: Conjuring the Calabash: Empowering Women with Hoodoo Spells and Magick and Hoodoo Saints and Root Warriors: Stories and Magick for Liberation.