Shauna Barbosa

Shauna Barbosa (born ca. 1988) is the author of the poetry collection Cape Verdean Blues (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). She was a finalist for PEN America's 2019 Open Book Award and was a 2018 Disquiet International Luso-American fellow.

Early life Barbosa was born to an African-American mother and Cape Verdean father, and grew up in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents met working at Polaroid.

Life and work Barbosa received her MFA from Bennington College in Vermont and currently resides in Los Angeles, California where she teaches Creative Writing in the Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension. Nas, Frank Ocean, Amy Winehouse and Andre 3000.

Lit Hub named it one of their favorite books of 2018.

The book is named after the jazz musician Horace Silver's 1966 album The Cape Verdean Blues.