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Torch Magazine
Celebrating creative writing by Black women from across the diaspora.


Friday Feature: Mofiyinfoluwa O.
Mofiyinfoluwa O. is a Nigerian writer living between Lagos and London. Her work is concerned with the interior of African|Black womanhood. She is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and The Founder of The Abebi AfroNonfiction Foundation. Her work has appeared in Guernica , Black Warrior Review , Variant Lit , Pleiades , Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Her work has been selected as a Best American Essay Notable Entry (2022) and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She i
Dec 12, 2025


Friday Feature: a. adenike phillips
a. adenike phillips (she/her) is a poet, cultural worker and collagist based in New Jersey. She believes in the transformative ability of art to heal, disrupt and reshape sight. She writes toward the interior lives of Black people—stories that slip between generations and place, often going unnoticed. Phillips has received support from AWP, Hurston/Wright, POWERHOUSE Residency, Arts by The People, and others. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the North American Re
Dec 5, 2025


Friday Feature: Leslie T. Grover
Leslie T. Grover is an award-winning writer, scholar, and activist. Her novella, The Benefits of Eating White Folks, marked her entrance into historical fiction, following her work in academic and nonfiction writing. A southern Black writer, her short stories have appeared in Waxing and Waning Literary Journal , Testimony , and as the winning entry in Owl Hollow Press’ The Takeback Anthology . In 2024, she won Amazon Kindle Vella’s Grand Prize for her short story, “Little G
Nov 21, 2025


Friday Feature: Mecca M. Miles
Mecca M. Miles is a Black, queer writer and spoken word poet from San Antonio, Texas. Her work has appeared in such publications as Wellspringwords Literary Anthology , The San Antonio Review , Texas Bards Anthology , When the River Speaks , Voices de la Luna , Voices Along the River , and has been featured on Best of Button Poetry . She has competed nationwide, taking 8th in Florida at the Exit 36 Slam in 2023 and 8th in Dallas, TX at the Right to Write Slam in 2024. She ha
Nov 14, 2025


Friday Feature: Grace Morse
Grace Morse (she/they) is an essayist from New Orleans, Louisiana, currently living in Galicia, Spain. Her work can be found in various publications and has been recognized as a finalist for CRAFT Literary Magazine’s 2023 Flash Prose Prize and BRINK Literary Journal for Hybrid Writing Award in 2024. Morse is the winner of the BRINK’s 2025 Emerging Writer Fellowship in Hybrid Writing award, with their essay-in-archives forthcoming in the Spring 2026 journal. A scholar of Span
Oct 31, 2025


Friday Feature: Cheryl R. Hopson
Dr. Cheryl R. Hopson is the John P. Fishwick Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. She has published essays on Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and U.S. Black Feminism. Her poetry collection In Case You Get This (2023) was published by Finishing Line Press. In 2024, Reaktion Books published her biography Zora Neale Hurston . Alice Walker’s Mary Agnes Speaks They used to call me Squeak until I learned to speak back. Be
Oct 24, 2025


Friday Feature: Marchaé Grair
Marchaé Grair (they/she) is a storyteller, spiritual seeker, and facilitator making meaning of life’s liminal spaces. They are an alum...
Oct 3, 2025


Friday Feature: Alana Benoit
Alana Benoit , a first-generation Black American with Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Central American heritage, holds a BA from Union College,...
Sep 26, 2025


Friday Feature: Shia Shabazz Smith
Shia Shabazz Smith is a writer-director and educator based in Oakland, California. With over 20 years of storytelling across mediums,...
Sep 19, 2025


Friday Feature: Jennifer Maritza McCauley
Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the author of the cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), When Trying to Return...
Sep 12, 2025


Friday Feature: Penda Smith
Penda Smith is a poet and educator whose work has appeared in Root Work Journal , Huffington Post , Frontier Poetry , and Muzzle...
Aug 29, 2025


Friday Feature: Shy-Zahir Moses
Shy-Zahir Moses (they/them) is a Black person, poet, and educator from Dallas, Texas, whose poems appear in Callaloo , Dialogist , and A...
Aug 22, 2025


Friday Feature: Yolanda Kwadey
Yolanda Kwadey is a Ghanaian currently pursuing an MFA in Fiction at the University of Florida. Her writing typically centers African...
Aug 15, 2025


Friday Feature: Tianna Bratcher
Tianna Bratcher (they/she) is a Black, queer, genderfluid poet. They are a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, a fellow of Tin House,...
Jul 18, 2025


Friday Feature: Tiezst “Tie” Taylor
Tiezst “Tie” Taylor is a Disabled Black femme who is non-binary trans. They are a radical educator, artist-activist, poet, and...
Jul 11, 2025


Friday Feature: Ashlee Haze
Ashlee Haze is a Telly Award-winning poet, librettist, and spoken word artist from Atlanta by way of Chicago. Her work has been featured...
Jun 27, 2025


Friday Feature: Soni Brown
Soni Brown writes from the complicated spaces between countries, between family members who should love each other, between the person...
Jun 20, 2025


Friday Feature: Courtney Conrad
Courtney Conrad is a Jamaican poet. Her debut pamphlet I Am Evidence, is published by Bloodaxe Books. She’s won the Eric Gregory Award,...
Jun 13, 2025


Friday Feature: Jā. R. Macki
Jā. R. Macki is the author of Linus Baby (Pie Face Child Press, 2023). Her writing and visual art have appeared in midnight & indigo ,...
Jun 6, 2025


Friday Feature: Princess Usanga
Princess Usanga is a Miami-based director and writer with Haitian and Nigerian roots, born in Queens, New York. Her storytelling delves...
May 30, 2025
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