CREATIVE WRITING
THE BEE KINGDOM
forthcoming
a saga of modern beekeeping, Arabic poetry, lost loves, and found archives
The Bee Kingdom is a memoir that incorporates fragments of historical fiction as it follows the author’s search for her late grandfather, a well-known yet elusive figure of Arabic letters. It weaves together a coming-of-age story with fictional imaginings of the forgotten world of an Anglo-Egyptian family, shedding light on a tumultuous period in Egypt’s modern history. The book draws on personal story-telling, scholarly research, and memories both real and imagined. Garnett was awarded a writing fellowship at Yaddo to work on The Bee Kingdom, an excerpt of which was Longlisted for the 2024 First Pages Prize in Creative Nonfiction.
The author’s grandfather, Ahmed Zaky Abushady (1892-1955), was an Egyptian romantic poet, publisher, scientist, physician, beekeeper, and inventor whose life was steeped in controversy. An Edwardian polymath who worked against the grain, he was notorious for his experimental, European-inflected poetry and for founding the influential literary magazine Apollo, which challenged the rigid conventions of his time. At the close of World War II he fled Alexandria with his family under mysterious circumstances to start a new life in New York. He died in relative obscurity in Washington, DC.
PUBLISHED EXCERPTS
“Hoda Floating Hotel,” NASHVILLE REVIEW Issue 41, 2023
“The Sea Takes Up Residence in All Parts of the City,” RUSTED RADISHES American University of Beirut, Issue 8: Sea Change: 2019
“Joy Amina Garnett’s memoir-like ‘The Sea Takes up Residence in All Parts of the City’ recounts the female narrator’s stay in Alexandria, where she combed through old book shops, searching for traces of the poetry her grandfather had published in the ’30s. Her search is accompanied by a man – a researcher, perhaps a lover – who shared her interests. He is the second-person subject to whom her narrative is addressed but is, like her deceased grandfather, absent from the narrator’s present.” — Al Bawaba, Editor’s Choice, Beirut Literary Journal Captivates The Pulse of Art, Dec 29, 2019.
STAT®REC (Berlin), edited by Andrea Scrima
“The Bee Kingdom,” outline of a work-in-progress (May 2019)
FULL BLEDE (Los Angeles), broadsheet featuring contemporary writing and art independently published by Sacha Halona Baumann
“Time Capsule,” Issue 10, 2019
“Memento,” Issue 9, 2019
“Hive Inspection,” Issue 8, 2019
“Arrival,” Issue 7, 2019
“Edham the Atheist (a fiction),” PING-PONG FREE PRESS November Issue, 2015
A lost manuscript, a walk in the heat, a nervous monologue, an imagined meeting. (PING-PONG FREE PRESS was a literary journal of the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, CA).
SHORT STORIES
“Smoke,” HALFWAY DOWN THE STAIRS December 2024 Fairytale & Folklore Issue.
“Eggplant/Bitingan by Ibn Sara,” ELLIPSE MAGAZINE Issue 94: food/nourriture, 2024
This bite-size story probes a mother and daughter cooking together, the opacity of a 12th century Arabic poem, and the author’s dependence on translations by other people.
“Lesser Meats,” TWO COATS OF PAINT Summer Fiction series, 2022
“Life Drawing,” EVERGREEN REVIEW Spring/Summer Issue 2021
“Vivid scenes of a vital life-in-progress.” — American Book Award recipient Gary Gach
“Leaving New York,” EVERGREEN REVIEW Fall/Winter Issue 2020
“An ode to a vanished New York… Interwoven with a lost city are the lost people, the lovers, the neighbors, the artists, the diners, the cars. And when you conclude that you are not sad at all to leave New York, what New York has become, you stab me in the heart.” — Lambda Literary Award finalist Jee Leong Koh
STAT®REC (Berlin), edited by Andrea Scrima
“Micromanagement” (September 2019)
“Piss & Vinegar,” THE ARTISTS’ AND WRITERS’ COOKBOOK, edited by Natalie Eve Garrett (powerHouse Books, 2016)
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Joy Amina Garnett 
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