Unoma Azuah is a Nigerian writer and activist whose research and activism focus on LGBT rights and stories in Nigerian literature. She is the international-award-winning author of three books. photo by Jose Osorio Unoma Azuah teaches English at Wiregrass Georgia Tech. Valdosta, GA, USA. In 2011, she was listed as one of the top professors at small private colleges in the United States in Affordable/Private Colleges and Universities in the United States . Additionally, she i

Fabienne Josaphat is the author of the novel  Kingdom of No Tomorrow (Algonquin), winner of the 2023 PEN Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. photo by Pedro Wazzan Fabienne Josaphat is the author of the novel  Kingdom of No Tomorrow (Algonquin), winner of the 2023 PEN Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize. The New York Times calls it "Muscular, searing . .  . a novel for our times." Pulitzer-Prize winn

Nandi Comer is an award-winning poet and essayist. She was appointed as Michigan's poet laureate in 2023, becoming the state's first poet laureate since the 1950s. Nandi Comer  served as the 2nd Poet Laureate of the state of Michigan from 2023 to 2025. She is the author of the chapbook,   American Family: A Syndrome   (Finishing Line Press). Her debut poetry collection, Tapping Out  (Triquarterly)  won the Society of Midland Authors Award and Julie Suk Award. She has received

Myriam J. A. Chancy is the author of several scholarly books and works of fiction, including the widely acclaimed 2021 novel, What Storm, What Thunder . photo credit: N. Affonso Myriam J. A. Chancy is the author of the novel Village Weavers (Tin House), a Time Best Book of April 2024, and winner of the 2025 Fiction OCM Bocas Award in Caribbean Literature. Her work has received multiple awards, including an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the Guyana

Patricia Spears Jones is a celebrated poet, playwright, and educator. She served as the New York Poet Laureate from 2023-2025. Arkansas-born Patricia Spears Jones has lived and worked in New York City since 1974.  She is a poet, playwright, educator, cultural activist, and anthologist and was appointed New York State Poet (2023-25) and a Poet Laureate Fellowship from The Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation. She is the recipient of the 2017 Jackson Poetry Priz

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a Trinidadian poet, teaching artist, and theatre performer who lives in New York. Her latest collection, The...

Kendra Allen is a multi-genre award-winning author from Dallas, Texas, whose debut novel Like The People Do  is forthcoming in 2026....

Angela Jackson is an award-winning poet, novelist, and playwright who has published three chapbooks, four volumes of poetry, and served...

Deesha Philyaw is the award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies . Deesha Philyaw ’s debut short story collection, The...

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a New York Times bestselling novelist and essayist, best known for her novels Wench , Balm , and Take My Hand....

Tanya Shirley is a Jamaican poet, Cave Canem Fellow, and the author of two poetry collections; She Who Sleeps with Bones  and The...

Nijla Mu'min  is an award-winning writer, performer, and filmmaker whose feature film Jinn premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival and...

Camille T. Dungy is a celebrated author and professor whose honors include the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim...

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an award-winning author of nonfiction and poetry. Her most recent book Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life...

Lynne Thompson is the award-winning author of four collections of poetry and was the 4th Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. Lynne Thompson ...

Shirley May is the author of She Wrote Her Own Eulogy and a revered figure in the UK’s spoken word scene. Photographer: Nicole May...

Texas-born LaToya Watkins is the author of the short story collection Holler, Child , which was longlisted for a National Book Award....

Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton  is an award-winning author of Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023) and Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019), as...

Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of San Antonio, TX, and the author of She Lives in Music (Flower Song Press, 2020) ....

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is the award-winning author of Big Girl , Blue Talk and Love , and The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms...