Jeevika Verma
Jeevika Verma joined NPR's Morning Edition and Up First as a producer in February 2020. During her time there, she's produced a variety of stories ranging from Afghanistan peace talks, COVID surges in India and local & state elections. Verma also contributes to arts and poetry coverage for NPR's culture desk, and is always trying to get more poets on air. She leads the Morning Edition diversity council and works on DEI efforts across the network to help NPR live up to its mission.
Verma came to Morning Edition from WNYC's The Takeaway where she produced national segments in addition to supporting the daily live show. Originally from India, she got her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she spent months producing long-form works of narrative journalism on the opioid crisis, power struggles within the South Asian community and the mental health of couples struggling with addiction. Prior to that, she worked in marketing, public relations and publishing. Her first stint at NPR was actually a corporate communications and media relations internship in 2017. Verma is a part-time tarot reader and full-time poet. She also spent the last few years as a freelance writer for several publications and created some independent zines.
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If you, like many people, are getting through the dragging months of the pandemic by being Very Online, you'll find poet Leigh Stein's new book is a perfect encapsulation of that experience. -
The Afghan politician has survived two assassination attempts and is one of four Afghan women negotiating with the Taliban. "The power of words is stronger than the power of bullets," she tells NPR. -
In her third collection of poems, Natalie Shapero takes a blunt, funny look at the uncomfortable realities of life under capitalism. She says her work engages with the things people don't talk about.
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Poet Jackie Wang's collection is a surrealist expression of how social processes and traumas show up in our dreams and how we can better understand ourselves by tuning in to them. -
With 1,800 pieces submitted by the public, volunteers are putting together a kolam, a traditional South Indian art form used as a sign of welcome. -
In her debut collection, poet torrin a. greathouse explores what it means to be both trans and disabled, and the ways beauty can be a trap for trans women — so why not write towards ugliness? -
From New Mexico becoming the first state ever to elect all women of color to the House, to Delaware's Sarah McBride, the first transgender state senator, the list of diversity firsts in 2020 is long.
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Kazim Ali's new poetry collection was inspired by the story of Sheila Chandra, a well-known singer rendered voiceless by an incurable neurological condition. -
The playwright's first printed collection of plays, published in 1623, sold at a Christie's auction in New York on Wednesday for $9.98 million. -
Sumita Chakraborty's new poetry collection grapples with the death of the poet's sister; like the arrow of the title, which can be a weapon of Cupid or of war, these poems contain both love and death.
