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< Back Celebrating the Intersectionalities of Black Women Writers Jun 5, 2025 June is a month full of pride for queer, Caribbean, and song-filled Black women writers and the readers who love them. Black women writers are not a monolith and we celebrate each intersectional identity, especially in June. Writers from all over the diaspora are recognized for the experience that produced the unique storytelling we all value. This June is a Black, queer, Caribbean, and music-filled month for Torch. This June 19, we’ll be celebrating 160 years of Juneteenth. Now a federal holiday, Juneteenth was the official “end” of slavery, with the final word delivered to Galveston Island two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Torch is a proud Texas-based, Black-led organization from the South. Our work builds on the freedom our ancestors fought for by providing a community for Black women to freely share their stories. Pride Month occurs every June and is a consistent reminder that intersectionality is important in storytelling. Queer Black women and nonbinary writers continuously challenge the theoretical framework of gender, love, power, and sexuality in an undaunted and radical way. Lack of representation and lived experiences from these writers would lead to silenced and stifled viewpoints of all Black identities. June is also a time to celebrate Caribbean American writers during National Caribbean American Heritage Month. As an international organization, we welcome writers from all over and celebrate their unique voices in Torch Magazine and at our curated programs. Music is poetry, and June is the perfect time to celebrate Black Music Month. From workshops to events, Torch continuously supports Black women songwriters who merge music and poetry to produce memorable lyrics and tunes we sing in the shower or belt in our cars. Want to celebrate the work we’re doing to amplify every Black woman writer? Consider becoming a Community Impact Member (CIM) by donating at least $10 a month or $100 annually . Below are a few ways you can celebrate each month specifically. Celebrate Juneteenth: Attend These Torch Events June 9th – Torch Writing Circle June 20th – Carrying the Torch June 21st – Torch Writing Circle June 24th – Bloomsday & Beyond featuring Emma Dabiri presented by Torch and the Consulate General of Ireland Celebrate Pride Month: Read Work from Some of Torch Magazine’s Queer Features January 2025 Feature Alexis Pauline Gumbs July 2024 Feature Mecca Jamilah Sullivan Talicha J Ariel Moniz Shams Alkamil Celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month: Read Work from Some of Torch Magazine’s Caribbean Features Puschart Prize Winner Yael Valencia Aldana April 2025 Feature Tanya Shirley Savannah Balmir Tyra Douyon c.r. glasgow Celebrate Black Music Month: Read Work from Some of Torch Magazine’s Songwriters August 2024 Feature Andrea Vocab Sanderson January 2022 Feature Shayla Lawson Alexa Patrick ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Kicking Off 20 Years with the Spring 2026 Season Jan 29, 2026 Torch’s Spring 2026 Season builds on the history we've made in our 20 years of strengthening the literary community of Black women writers. To celebrate 20 years of literary excellence and community, we’re building on our programmatic foundation and adding more exciting collaborations. With the opening of the Torch Center, our space will be a literary paradise for new and long-time community members to gather and support each other. Our recurring events include the Writing Circle, which occurs twice a month on Monday evenings and Saturday mornings. You can sign up to write virtually with the global Torch community here . Our annual Torch Retreat will return in 2027 so that we can all gather in celebration at the 20th Anniversary event “ A Gathering of Flames . ” This three-day event celebrates Black women writers, supporters, features, fellows, and distinguished guests. Our special events this season include: Torch x AFS: Daughters of the Dust on February 17, 21, 22 Torch Literary Arts is a proud promotional partner of Austin Film Society (AFS). Join us for this special screening of Daughters of the Dust , written and directed by Julie Dash! Writers Across the Diaspora, San Marcos featuring Dr. Malika Booker on February 18 Join Torch Literary Arts, in partnership with the Texas State University English Department, and The Wittliff Collections, for Writers Across the Diaspora featuring award-winning British poet, Dr. Malika Booker! This is part of an annual partnership with Texas State, and the event is free and open to the public. Writers Across the Diaspora, Austin featuring Dr. Malika Booker on February 19 Returning to the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin, Torch is proud to present British poet Dr. Malika Booker for a reading and conversation with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the reading and conversation starting at 7:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Torch x AFS: Compensation on February 24, 28 Torch Literary Arts is a proud promotional partner of Austin Film Society (AFS). Join us for this special screening of Compensation , written by Marc Arthur Chéry, directed by Zeinabu irene Davis! Writing as Oath: Personal Truth-Telling in Memoir and Essay on February 28 This workshop comes directly from Torch Fellow, Star Davis’s own practice as a memoirist. Attendees will focus on personal truth-telling in memoir and personal essays. Participants are invited to bring a short excerpt from a current personal essay or memoir in progress for guided discussion and optional workshopping. The emphasis will be on craft, precision, and sustaining yourself as a writer while telling the truth of your life. AWP Conference Panel & Reading Celebrating 20 Years of Torch Literary Arts on March 5 This year, Torch Literary Arts will celebrate 20 years of publishing, promoting, and supporting Black women writers across the diaspora. Join us for this special anniversary panel and reading at the 2026 AWP Conference in Baltimore with Torch features Saida Agostini, Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D., and executive director Amanda Johnston. Welcome Table Talk on March 31 Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are returning March 31 for the intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks . The virtual discussions will cover various topics related to organization building, literary freedom, legacy, and more. The virtual discussions are free and open to all. More details to come! Wildfire Reading Series featuring Chiagoziem Jideofor on April 12 This is the first collaboration event presented by Host Publications and Torch Literary Arts. Join us for the launch of local remedies ! The event will include a reading and conversation with Jideofor, followed by a book signing. Light refreshments provided. Colored People’s Time (CPT) is Real Time is Real: Afrofuturism, the Speculative, the Surreal & the Fantastic on April 18 Afrofuturist theorist Rasheedah Phillips asserts that Colored People’s Time (CPT) is “a temporal technology, survival mechanism and harkening back to ancestral ways of observing and experiencing space-time.” How can we use time to explore the possibilities of Afrofuturism and surrealism in screenwriting? Writing exercises will foster experimentation across genres as we explore what makes an afro-futuristic, speculative, sci-fi story come to life. The Writer-as-Artisan: Writing as a Living Practice on May 23 It’s not unusual for a writer to feel a deep urge to write, yet lack a clear subject. So we sit around paralyzed, waiting for a ‘big idea’ to strike. But what if writing is not an arrival but a series of ongoings? In this workshop, we adopt the figure of the writer-as-artisan: someone for whom writing is a functional craft, a sustained practice, something not performed in the isolation of a room, but an attentive and communal posture towards the world. Carrying the Torch on June 20 Join Torch Literary Arts for the 4th Annual Carrying the Torch: A Reading and Remembrance for the Future . This special event acknowledges the historical significance of Juneteenth and celebrates the accomplishments of the African American community. Poets, writers, and guest speakers will share original work to acknowledge the federal holiday and celebrate the future of African Americans in Texas. Check out more details for specific events by visiting torchliteraryarts.org/events . We can’t wait to see you! ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. For more information about Torch Literary Arts, please visit https://www.torchliteraryarts.org/ or follow @torchliteraryarts on Instagram. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. About Austin Film Society (AFS) Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. About Malika Booker Malika Booker is a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage, and co-founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (A writer’s collective). The Anthology - Two Young, Two Black, Too Different, Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen was recently published to celebrate Malika Poetry Kitchen’s twenty-year anniversary . Her pamphlet Breadfruit , (flippedeye, 2007) received a Poetry Society recommendation, and her poetry collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas prize and the Seamus Heaney Centre 2014 prize for first full collection. She is published with the Poets Sharon Olds and Warsan Shire in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017 ). Booker and Shara McCallum recently co-edited the issue of Stand Journal curating an anthology of poems by African American, Black British, & Caribbean Women & Identifying Writers. Booker currently hosts and curates Peepal Tree Press’s Literary podcast, New Caribbean Voices. A Cave Canem Fellow, and inaugural Poet in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Malika was awarded the Cholmondeley Award (2019) for outstanding contribution to poetry and elected a Royal Society of Literature Fellow (2022). Her poem The Little Miracles, commissioned by and published in Magma 75(autumn 2019) won The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2020). Her poem Libation, published in Poetry Review (winter 2022) won The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2023). About Starr Davis Starr Davis is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Affidavit (Hanging Loose Press, 2025), winner of the Founders Prize, and the memoir I Am Mostly Bad Blood (Autumn House, 2026), winner of the 2024 Autumn House Nonfiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review , Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets, and Palette Poetry , where she was a third-place winner of the 2023 Sappho Prize for Women Poets. She serves as Creative Nonfiction Editor at TriQuarterly , teaches with Brooklyn Poets, and is a Visions After Violence Fellow with the After Violence Project. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, and currently based in Houston, Texas, she holds an MFA from the City College of New York and a BA from the University of Akron, and her work lives at the intersections of motherhood, justice, and survival. About AWP The Associated Writing Programs was established as a nonprofit organization in 1967 by fifteen writers representing thirteen creative writing programs. The new association sought to support the growing presence of literary writers in higher education. At that time, English departments were mainly conservatories of the great literature of the past, and scholars fiercely resisted the establishment of creative writing programs. AWP was created to overcome this resistance, to advocate for new programs, and to provide publishing opportunities for young writers. Today, AWP, now the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, supports colleges and universities as well as individual writers as members. To this day, AWP continues to expand, offering new programs and services to support members. About Wintergreen Writers Collective The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective is a 501(c)3 organization that gathers Black women writers in a literary community that seeks to publish, document, preserve, and celebrate their creative work. More than 70 women from all over the country have taken part in one or more of the Wintergreen retreats or programs over the last 38 years, coming to a place where they can do the sacred work of literary and cultural production. Wintergreen Women are prefiguring a world where the history and legacy of Black women writers are honored and preserved—a world where Black women writers have access to intergenerational spaces where, in community and mutuality, they can nurture one another and locate resources to support their creative practice. Members of the Collective share their knowledge and creativity as a way of encouraging and engaging one another and their extended literary and scholarly communities. About Saida Agostini Saida Agostini is a queer Afro-Guyanese poet, and author of the full-length collection, let the dead in (Alan Squire Publishing, 2022). A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, she has been awarded residencies at Saltonstall, VCCA and Blue Mountain Center, amongst others. About Teri Ellen Cross Davis Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union and Haint . Her fellowships and awards include The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize, the Ohioana Book Award for Poetry, and a Maryland Individual Artist Award. She curated the O.B. Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. About Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D. Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D., is the author of three books: Big Girl , a New York Times Editors’ Choice and winner of the Balcones Fiction Prize and the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel; T he Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora , winner of the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the MLA; and the short story collection, Blue Talk and Love , winner of the Judith Markowitz Award from Lambda Literary. She has earned honors from Bread Loaf, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, the Mellon Foundation, the Center for Fiction, the NEA, and others. Originally from Harlem, NY, she is Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington DC. About Amanda Johnston Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, and the 61st Poet Laureate of Texas. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key , as well as the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. She is also the editor of the anthology Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas . Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them Callaloo , Poetry Magazine , The Moth Radio Hour, Bill Moyers, The Rumpus , and elsewhere. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, Tasajillo, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, American Short Fiction, and the Academy of American Poets. She is a former Board President of the Cave Canem Foundation and the founder of Torch Literary Arts. About Chiagoziem Jideofor Chiagoziem Jideofor is Queer and Igbo. Her work has appeared in Poetry , Michigan Quarterly Review , South Carolina Review , berlin lit , The Lincoln Review , Passages North , Commonwealth’s ADDA , the Minnesota Review , Sho Poetry Journal , MAYDAY , and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and is currently a PhD student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. About Ashunda Ashunda is Black feminist filmmaker, poet, and photographer whose art centers the complexities of Black {Southern} womxnhood, magical spiritual traditions of Southern Black folk, futuristic maroon expressions, and Black fugitivity. Her art places a critical lens on society’s treatment of the Black female frame and explores the vulnerability of Black womxn and femmes. She has written, directed, and produced several short films, including her most recent multi-award-winning cinematic gesture, MINO: A Diasporic Myth ; now streaming on kweliTV and housed in Indiana University’s Black Film Center Archive. As an inaugural Torch Literary Arts Screenwriting fellow, Ashunda led a table read of her debut feature script Crossed Kalunga By The Stars . A 2021 ARRAY Liberated Territory fellow, Ashunda’s films have screened at festivals across the globe including Kampala, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya; London, England; Berlin, Germany, and Amsterdam. Her honors include fellowships from Cave Canem, the California Arts Council, Torch Literary Arts, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Brooklyn Poets and Storyknife. Ashunda is the founder of Sibyls Palace; a Black womxn centered art house that produces oppositional cinema & photography. Her art has exhibited in the TRYST Art Fair, OUTMusem and Red Spring’s Afrofuturism Curating the End of the World. Ashunda curates and hosts Sibyls Salon, a monthly writing vanguard & script reading series for Black womxn artists to commune, fellowship & support each other’s work. A proud alumna of Howard University and Paine College, the artist holds MFAs in both Poetry and Screenwriting. Born and raised in the backwoods of Georgia, Ashunda is now a bonafide, citified bitch living and dreaming in Los Angeles. About Idza Luhumyo Idza Luhumyo was born in Mombasa, Kenya. She studied law at the University of Nairobi, earned an MA in Comparative Literature at SOAS—University of London, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including Transition Magazine , African Arguments , the Masters Review , and the Porter House Review . Her short story, "Five Years Next Sunday," was awarded the 2021 Short Story Day Africa Prize and the 2022 Caine Prize for African Writing. Other awards include the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award and the Civitella Ranieri Writing Fellowship. She currently lives and works in Austin, TX. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Torch Literary Arts Announces Transitions to 2025 Board of Directors Oct 22, 2025 This board transition includes the retirement of former board secretary, Stephanie Lang, and the election of new board member, Rachel Winston As a growing organization, we welcome the changes that naturally occur externally and internally, including with our board of directors. Every leader who volunteers their time to help grow and add their personal shine to our organization is appreciated and valued. That’s why we’re excited to welcome a new board member, Rachel Winston, and extend immense gratitude to retiring board secretary, Stephanie Lang. Torch welcomes our newest board member, Rachel Winston, an archivist and curator based in Austin, TX. She is the founding Black Diaspora Archivist at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), where she leads the effort to build the library’s special collection documenting the Black experience across the Americas and Caribbean. Rachel holds a degree in anthropology with a minor in French from Davidson College. She is an alumna of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs and received her Master’s degree in Information Studies and Museum Studies from UT Austin. Retiring after 15 years of support is Stephanie Lang, a published writer and community curator who uses the power of storytelling to explore concepts of home and resistance. She was previously the Director of Community-Driven Initiatives at the Office of the Vice President for Campus and Community Engagement at UT Austin . In 2018, after the success of multiple community curatorial projects, Ms. Lang founded RECLAIM, an organization working to discover, recover, and ultimately showcase the narratives and histories of black people throughout the diaspora, and present these findings through an artistic and thought-provoking lens. We are excited to see what we accomplish with additional insight and direction on our board, and hold dear the wisdom from past board members as well. For more information about Torch Literary Arts and our team, please visit https://www.torchliteraryarts.org/team or follow @torchliteraryarts on Instagram. ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts (TORCH) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. Help TORCH continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Torch Announces the Nominations for the Pushcart Prize Brittany Heckard Nov 22, 2024 Six Torch Features, Erica Frederick, A. E. Wynter, Sydney Mayes, Chidima Anekwe, Chyann Hector, and Mon Misir, are nominated for their respective works. For the third year in a row, Torch is elated to nominate six Torch Features for The Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart Prize has been published every year since 1976 and showcases small presses from all over America. Torch Magazine has been featured in the publication every year since our nominations began in 2022. It is a true testament to the work that Black women produce and the importance of amplifying their work through our online magazine. You can learn more about the prize here . Our Amazing Torch Nominees Include: “ Banana Trees/Sunflower Seeds ” by Erica Frederick “ Track One (Kick, Push III) ” by A.E. Wynter “ Exhaustion Whispers Tough Luck to The July Child ” by Sydney Mayes “ Biafra Song ” by Chidima Anekwe “ Black Girlhood ” by Chyann Hector “ Excise ” by Mon Misir ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. About Erica Frederick Erica Frederick is a queer, Haitian American writer from Orlando, Florida currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from Syracuse University and writes about being big in all the ways there are to be big—in body, in spirit, in Blackness, in Florida suburbia. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, Tin House, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, VIDA, Lambda Literary, and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She is well at work on her first novel, Fight in the Night. About A.E. Wynter A. E. Wynter is a Black, Jamaican-descended writer and editor from New York. She is also a community organizer and currently lives in Saint Paul, MN where she has curated multimedia art exhibits, writing workshops, and readings, among other events. Wynter has received multiple grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and was a fiction fellow in the 2021-2022 Loft Mentor Series. Winner of the 53rd New Millennium Award for Poetry and The Florida Review 2024 Editors' Award in Poetry, her poems have also appeared or are forthcoming in West Trade Review and Water~Stone Review . Wynter was a 2023 resident at the Carolyn Moore Writers Residency. About Sydney Mayes Sydney Mayes is a poet from Denver, Colorado. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Atlantic, Poets.org , The Iowa Review Blog, Gulf Coast Journal, Obsidian, Denver Quarterly, Booth, and Prairie Schooner . Mayes won the 2021 Iowa Chapbook Prize for her chapbook You Look Just Like Your Mama . She was selected by Roger Reeves as a finalist for the 2024 Furious Flower Poetry Prize. Executive Editor of Nashville Review , Mayes is an MFA Candidate in Poetry at Vanderbilt University. Follow Sydney on Instagram . About Chidima Anekwe Chidima Anekwe is an emerging writer hailing from the old coastal town of Stratford, CT. She is a recent graduate from Yale University with a B.A. in English Language & Literature and a concentration in Creative Writing. For her work, she has received support from the SAEF Grant and the DuPuy Prize, and has been nominated for a MacNelly Award for Literary Arts. She writes to explore new postcolonial poetics and Black feminist existentialisms within contemporary American girlhood, usually with a satirical bent. She has read for The Yale Review and edited for DOWN , a BIPOC-centered webzine, among others. She is currently based in CT and gaining experience in NY. About Chyann Hector Chyann Hector is a Black Jamaican-American writer and educator based in the DMV. She has been writing ever since she could remember and wrote her first novel in a spiral notebook in the 5th grade. In her work, Chyann prioritizes the voices of Black women who are immigrants and descendants of immigrants. She also explores multi-generational relationships, mental health, and culture in her writing. You can find her on Instagram and TikTok: @chyiswriting. About Mon Misir Mon Misir (she/they) is a queer Black British writer and recovering lawyer based in London, UK. They use their writing to explore facets of their experience as a black woman, with a speculative bent. When not writing or editing others’ work in various writers groups, they enjoy reading, theatre (musical and otherwise), and learning how to wield a longsword. They have work published in or forthcoming with the Decolonial Passage and Midnight & Indigo . You can find their links here: https://bio.site/Nomonbooks or follow them on Instagram . About The Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America - including Highest Honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters . Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in our annual collections. Each year most of the writers and many of the presses are new to the series. Every volume contains an index of past selections, plus lists of outstanding presses with addresses. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Austin Community Foundation Announces Torch Literary Arts as one of The Black Fund Grant Partners Brittany Heckard Jan 30, 2024 The Black Fund’s recognition of Torch Literary Arts as a grant partner allows Torch to continue hosting special events for Black women writers in the Austin community. AUSTIN, Tex., January 30, 2024 – Torch Literary Arts (Torch) was recently granted a semifinalist grant partner award from Austin Community Foundation’s The Black Fund. Torch is one of five arts, culture, and preservation impact area nonprofits to receive a grant from the fund. The grant will be used to fund Torch’s in-person special events supporting Black women writers in Austin. “ Funding Black-led and serving organizations is one of many critical steps needed to preserve Black culture in Austin,” said Amanda Johnston, founder and executive director of Torch. “Organizations like Torch, and the many others receiving a grant from The Black Fund, exist as safe-havens for Black people looking for their community.” Institutionally, funding for Black-led and serving organizations is scarce as these organizations are often neglected by larger foundations compared to other nonprofits. According to the Black Nonprofit Fundraising Guide , philanthropic racial bias leads to Black communities being underfunded by $2 billion. The Stanford Social Innovation Review found that Black-led organizations’ revenue is 45% smaller than white-led organizations despite focusing on the same work. Austin Community Foundation launched The Black Fund in 2022 with the purpose of addressing the systemic racial inequities present in Austin. Over three years, the fund will invest over $1 million dollars to Black-led and Black-serving nonprofit organizations in the Central Texas region. The Black Fund invests in the following impact areas: arts, culture, and preservation; education; health and wellness; power building, organizing, and advocacy; and wealth building. Austin Community Foundation was established in 1977 with the goal of meeting community needs in Central Texas. To date, the foundation has given over $500 million to over 1300 nonprofits across Central Texas. Their vision of advancing economic mobility is mobilized through their programs like The Black Fund, Hispanic Impact Fund, Women’s Fund, and FundATX. For more information about Torch Literary Arts, please visit https://www.torchliteraryarts.org/ or follow @torchliteraryarts on Instagram. ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts (Torch) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. About Austin Community Foundation Austin Community Foundation was created through the generosity of one woman, Fannie Gray Files Leo . She wanted a way to provide for her favorite charities and upon her death, she earmarked five percent of her estate ($30,000) to create Austin Community Foundation. In 1977, a group of business leaders, led by Fannie Gray’s bank trust officer, officially founded Austin Community Foundation. In creating the foundation, Austin followed the example of hundreds of cities across the country with the goal to meet community needs and inspire local philanthropists to create endowments to generate earnings and distribute grants. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

Donate to amplify Black women writers. Your gift is tax-deductible and helps Torch Literary Arts create advancement opportunities for emerging writers. Support Torch Literary Arts and help amplify Black women writers around the world! Fuel Torch's Flame Donate to Torch Literary Arts and become a Community Impact Member (CIM)! Your unrestricted contribution helps Torch deliver exceptional programs, pay Black women writers for their time and talents, and maintain operations so we can make a lasting impact for Black women writers and readers worldwide. 2025 Impact Snapshot 50+ Events 74 Features 5,000+ Attendees 93 Workshop Participants 8 Retreat Fellows WINNER Inaugural AWP Writing Organization Award 2025 - 2026 Individual Donors A"Lease Glass Aaraf Adam Aisha Marshall Dr. Aiyana Anderson Alba Castillo Alec Williams Fletcher Alejandra Mireles Alexander Piña Alexis Guild Alicia Niwagaba Aliyah Symes Allen Heckard Allen Heckard Alyse G. Amanda Johnston Amy Smith Amy Williams aneesa needel Angela Redmond-Theodore Angelica Heard Angie Aguirre Ann Fields Anna Dolliver annabelle oh Annar Veröld Antoinette Franklin Antonia Harris April Randall April Sojourner Truth Walker Picaro Ariel Wright Ashley Battle Ashley Lawrence Atena Danner Ayanna Harris Barry Johnon Becky Thompson Becky Gomez Bethany Stellar Beverly Chukwu Bianca Jackson Bleu Bobby Wilkinson Brenda Sendejo Briana Nunn C. Denby Swanson Cachavious English Camari Carter Hawkins Cameron Bell Camille Brown Candace Lopez Carrie Kenny Cecily Sailer Charles Landgraf Charley Rejsek Charli Krause Charlotte Jackson-Brown Charlyn Stanberry Chastie Gaines Dr. Chela White Chesma McCoy Chinonso O. Chioma Ayogu Chioma Chukwu Christal Hayes Christie Cruise Christina Brown Christina Bryant Christina Garcia Christine Jean Blain Christopher Michael Ciara McLaughlin Cierra M. Cindy Huyser Cindy Mota Rios Claire Bowman Claudia Castañeda Cody Hammer Cole Gibson Conscious Lee Constance White Corey Baron Cynthia Huyser Dalia Azim Daniel Bernitt Danyeal Wright Davis Kaufman PLLC Dawn Rising Deanna Ruff Debbie Bridge Delicia Choyce derrais carter Desiree French Diana Chau Diem Tran Donnavyn T Doris Walker Dr. Latimer Dulari Gandhi Ebony A. English Eden W. Edmund Davis Elissa Rinehart Elizabeth Upshur Elle Wilson Elle Wise Ellen Wright Emil J. Ottis Emily Rutter Emily Truax Emmy Laursen Erica Jackson erin johnson Erin Waelder Erva Cockfield Evie Shockley Faheen Allibhoy Faith Miller Fallon Blossom Farah Hussain Farhana Khera Felice Belle Felicia Finney Flornida Bryant Francene Rose Francés Jones, Esq. 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Torch's annual retreat for Black women writers with works-in-progress across poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and script. Fellows enjoy a week-long stay at the Colton House Hotel in Austin, TX where they can write, rest, and dream. 2027 Torch Retreat July 18 - 25, Austin, TX Torch Literary Arts is proud to provide our annual creative writing retreat. We welcome applications from Black women writers with major works-in-progress across poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction (memoir or lyric essays), and script (plays or screenplays). The Torch Retreat will return in 2027. We invite everyone to A Gathering of Flames: Celebrating 20 Years of Torch Literary Arts on September 25-27, 2026. Applications Are Closed Amplifying Black Women Writers Since 2006 Dedicated Writing Time Fellows receive plenty of time for dedicated writing devoted to their works-in-progress. We gently support you in your writing goals for the week by providing group check-ins and the opportunity to share your progress in a nurturing environment. Comfortable Accommodations Your comfort matters. The Colton House Hotel was carefully selected as the property for the Torch retreat to provide fellows with a plush environment where they may dream and write freely. Financial Support There is no fee to apply or attend the retreat. Each fellow will receive a $1,000 stipend to assist with travel, supplies, childcare, or anything else that helps make it possible for fellows to attend regardless of financial ability. Your Stay in Austin, TX Retreat fellows will stay at the beautiful Colton House Hotel . Accommodations include a private bedroom and bathroom in a two-bedroom suite with a shared living room and full kitchen. During your week-long retreat, you will receive dedicated writing time, breakfast and lunch provided, and ample time during the afternoons and evenings to rest, recharge, enjoy the hotel amenities, or explore the city. The retreat will also include guest speakers and a public reading by fellows at the end of the week. View photos from past retreats here . 2025 Torch Retreat Fellows 2024 Torch Retreat Fellows 2023 Torch Retreat Fellows

< Back Austin Film Society Joins Torch Literary Arts as New Community Partners Feb 5, 2026 The two organizations will amplify a series of film screenings showcasing Black women screenwriters, directors, and films that reflect Black culture. Austin Film Society (AFS) and Torch Literary Arts (Torch) are partnering to amplify diversity in film at AFS Cinema. These film screenings will be mission-aligned with both organizations and start this month with screenings of Daughters of the Dust and Compensation . Daughters of the Dust (1991), written and directed by Julie Dash, is an intergenerational film about three Gullah women and their lives in the South Carolina islands in 1902. The film won Best Cinematography at Sundance in 1991, Grand Jury Prize Nominee at Sundance in 1991, and was featured at many film festivals, including Mill Valley, BFI London, New Orleans, and Chicago. The first screening is on February 17th. You can purchase tickets for a screening here . Compensation (1999), directed by Zeinabu irene Davis, is a film highlighting the lives of two deaf women living almost a century apart from each other, one living in 1900 and the other in 1990. The film will have ASL interpretation. The film won the Gordon Parks Directing Award from the Independent Feature Project. The first screening is on February 24th. You can purchase tickets for a screening here . “This partnership highlights screenwriters and filmmakers we love to support,” said Amanda Johnston, founder and executive director of Torch Literary Arts. “Producing events that amplify voices of Black women while also enjoying their work on screen is the type of intentional community building we strive for.” AFS and Torch are just steps away from each other at The LINC in the historic St. Johns area, allowing a collaborative partnership that is accessible and convenient for attendees. The partnership highlights the need for representation of Black women writers in cinema and an in-depth look at powerful stories that resonate with any audience. If you are a Torch Feature, Fellow, or CIM Member, please email us for a discount code for these two screenings before you purchase your ticket. You can learn more about Austin Film Society by visiting their website at austinfilmsociety.org . ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch Magazine has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. About Austin Film Society Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Celebrating Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day Mar 11, 2025 This year’s themes of moving forward together and accelerating change reinforce Torch’s mission to ALWAYS support Black women writers and the stories they share. March is Women’s History Month, and this past Saturday, March 8, was International Women’s Day. Each year, people around the world celebrate the impact that women have in their lives. Whether it's a mother, sister, teacher, aunt, or writer, the impact women have in shaping our world is immeasurable. This year’s theme for Women's History Month is “ Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” celebrating the impact and importance of information sharing and inspiring growth. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was “Accelerate Action,” marking the importance of moving forward boldly and swiftly to address the systemic barriers that women face. Torch’s mission is beautifully represented in both themes this year. As a nonprofit organization dedicated to amplifying both emerging and established Black women writers around the world, we work hard to share knowledge, pay and publish Black women, and provide community. In 2025, our work only reaffirms this year’s themes around education, inspiration, and actionable change to impact the lives of Black women writers. As we continue our work, your support for writers is also just as impactful! Below are some ways you can join us in supporting Black women writers internationally and intergenerationally. March Events March 11th - Join the Welcome Table Talk in Collaboration with Wintergreen Women Writers Collective March 15th - Playwriting Workshop: Who all over there? Learning the Character of Your Characters with Florinda Bryant March 15th - Torch Writing Circle Torch Magazine Read our March 2025 Feature: Nijla Mu'min Support Torch Become a monthly donor to help us reach our $40,000 fundraising goal Shop our BookShop page featuring our Torch Features ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Torch Announces the 2025 Retreat Fellows Brittany Heckard Apr 24, 2025 Torch returns for a third consecutive year to host eight fellows at their annual retreat for Black women writers at the Colton House in Austin, Texas, from July 20-27, 2025. AUSTIN, Tex., April 17, 2025 – Torch Literary Arts is proud to announce the 2025 Torch Retreat Fellows! Eight writers with works-in-progress across poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and script (plays, screenplays) were selected among 375 applicants to participate in our annual retreat at the Colton House Hotel from July 20-27. Each fellow will receive a $1,000 stipend to help with costs associated with travel, supplies, or other financial needs to support their attendance at the retreat. Intentional about our vision of creating community, each fellow is paired with another writer in their genre, participates in craft talks and a public reading, and is encouraged to rest. Introducing the 2025 Torch Retreat Fellows Jumi Bello is a fiction writer, scholar, and advocate committed to exploring abolitionist futures and disability justice. A PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, her work examines critical disability studies, carceral studies, speculative fiction, and decolonial worldbuilding. She is also a fiction graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and a proud Posse Scholar alum. Jumi’s creative work includes HO(US)E , a speculative novel that imagines a sentient halfway house bearing witness to the afterlives of psychiatric survivorship. Her concept of Mad Futurism serves as a framework for imagining care beyond the constraints of carceral systems. Her writing has been supported by the Black Mountain Institute, Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop, and Roots. Wounds. Words. Through her work as a writer, mentor, and literary community member, Jumi is dedicated to fostering conversations on disability justice and speculative worldbuilding. Her recent presentations at the Eaton Conference on Speculative Fiction and the Communities of Care Symposium explore the intersections of narrative, memory, and liberation. At The Torch Retreat, she looks forward to continuing her exploration of storytelling as a catalyst for transformative change. Jassmine Parks is a Detroit poet, professor, arts administrator, and flower child. Currently working on her poetic debut, touch stone, Jassmine’s work examines the resiliency of the Black and feminine experience. As an adoptee, Jassmine delves into the thematic depths of the long-term impact of mass incarceration and family separation, daughter and motherhood, identifying the traumatic ruptures and healing salve within her lineage and reclaiming narrative as a tool to own her power. Jassmine’s poetry has been supported and published with Obsidian: Literature & Arts In The African Diaspora , Clearline Magazine , and Room Object , and her performances can be found on PBS, Button Poetry, SlamFind, and All Def Poetry. She has been nurtured through fellowships from The Watering Hole, Pen America: Emerging Voices, Michigan Traditional Arts Program, Kresge Arts In Detroit, and Room Project. You can find her basking in the light of her husband and two children or lost in nostalgia, wishing for the time of aluminum foil grills and Cash Money Records was taking over for the nine nine and the two thousand. As a flower child, she wishes to leave a legacy of thriving, tenderness and growth. Learn more about Jassmine at her website: www.jassmineparkstheflowerchild.com . .CHISARAOKWU. (she/her) is an Igbo American transdisciplinary poet artist. Drawing inspiration from her Igbo heritage, quantum physics, her career in medicine, indigenous healing practices, and the natural world, her poetry weaves archival text, visual art, film, and collage to unsilence the archives pertaining to Africans in the diaspora. Her work appears in literary and academic journals and received fellowship support from Cave Canem, Anaphora Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and more. She was the 2023 Sonia Sanchez Poetry Fellow at MacDowell and in 2025 received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is an alum of Duke University School of Medicine and Stanford University. Otito Greg-Obi (They/We/ She) is a queer, Black, Igbo, neuroexpansive writer. Their work explores mental health, ecology, and intimacy. They love writing genre-bending stories that are character-driven and woven with magical realism. Otito was awarded a 2024 Rooted and Written Fellowship for their sci-fi pilot Bloodsap. They were a finalist for the 2025 Sundance Collab Cultural Impact Residency and the 2025 Periplus Fellowship. They also won a 2023 Sundress Academy for the Arts Residency for their dramedy pilot Pinky Swear. Their dramedy pilot, Knead , received an honorable mention in the 2023 Finish Line Script Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2022 Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. In addition to writing films and tv shows, Otito is a member of the 2025 Liberation Ecology Cohort with Critical Ecology Lab. Otito is also the producer and host of Best Friends for (N)Ever, a podcast about the highs and lows of friendship. When we’re not conjuring and devouring stories, we’re practicing yoga, walking through forests, swimming through water, and pressing flowers in books we haven’t finished reading yet. Kenndall Wallace loves to write. As a Black playwright, author, and screenwriter, Kenndall uses the written word to not only entertain audiences-- but create living, moving art pieces through storytelling. She was an inaugural winner of the Farmers' Alley Theatre Lumen Playwriting Competition, a Broadcast Education Association winner for her debut feature-length screenplay, and has been honored three times by the Region III Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, being awarded at the national level in 2024 with her full-length play 'To Cry Into Sand'. As she grows as a writer and artist, she hopes to continue writing stories that explore and honor Black culture. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai is a writer, teacher, preacher, and social activist. Her primary literary form has been the sermon. She has preached in pulpits throughout the United States and beyond and has taught or presented in multiple venues, including Boston University, as the Anna Howard Shaw lecturer, as a presenter at the World Methodist Council, in Gothenburg Sweden, and most recently as the opening preacher for the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference in North Carolina. She has served in The United Methodist Church for more than twenty years and was elected bishop in 2022. At this stage in her life and career, she is exploring other literary forms, including poetry and memoir. She is the recipient of poetry and fiction awards from the Friends of the Chautauqua Institute and a regular participant in the Iowa Writers Summer Festival. Her current project is a memoir about trauma. She notes, “I want to write the stories about how I got through. They are my truth, the plumb line of my life, from fists that wounded to the hands that heal. I am really writing the story of my hands, which I have spent a career offering to others in ministry.” Starr Davis is a talented writer and devoted mother whose work appears in The Kenyon Review and Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets. She has received fellowships from The Luminary and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and serves as the Creative Nonfiction Editor of TriQuarterly . A 2025 Visions After Violence Fellow with the After Violence Project, Starr is dedicated to exploring the intersections of trauma, justice, and storytelling. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York and a BA in Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Akron. Her personal-political reporting has been recognized by Longreads and featured on podcasts like What You Didn’t Expect in Fertility . A survivor, Starr advocates for women writers and marginalized voices, often speaking on domestic violence and economic injustice against Black mothers. Nominated for awards such as the Pushcart Prize, she is also a 2024 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books. Her poetry collection, AFFIDAVIT , will be published by Hanging Loose Press in Fall 2025. She resides in Houston, empowering women through volunteer work. Idza Luhumyo was born in Mombasa, Kenya. She studied law at the University of Nairobi, earned an MA in Comparative Literature at SOAS--University of London, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including in Transition Magazine , African Arguments , the Masters Review , and the Porter House Review . Her short story, "Five Years Next Sunday," earned her the 2021 Short Story Day Africa Prize and the 2022 Caine Prize for African Writing. Other awards include the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award and the Civitella Ranieri Writing Fellowship. She currently lives in Austin and teaches in the English department at Texas State University. The inaugural Torch Retreat convened in 2023 with six fellows writing across poetry, fiction, and script and included retreat fellows Ashley M. Coleman, Ajanaė Dawkins, Victoria Newton Ford, Ashunda Norris, Obinwanne Nwizu, and Keya Vance. Our 2024 fellows included Sandra Jackson-Opoku, m. mick powell, Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton , DW McKinney, Elizabeth Brown, Meredith L. King, and Destiny Hemphill. You can watch a video of the 2023 Torch Retreat readings and 2024 Torch Retreat readings on our YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/@torchlitarts . ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next

< Back Torch Announces 2026 Dates for 20th Anniversary Celebration Aug 20, 2025 “A Gathering of Flames” will take place in Austin, Texas, from September 25 to 27, 2026, celebrating Black women writers and 20 years of Torch’s growing community. AUSTIN, Tex., Aug. 20, 2024 – Torch Literary Arts is announcing their 20th Anniversary celebration, “A Gathering of Flames,” occurring September 25-27, 2026, at the Austin Central Branch Library Special Event Center to celebrate Torch’s 20-year legacy of supporting and creating community for Black women writers across the diaspora. For three days, Black women writers and supporters from around the world will convene in Austin to attend the inaugural Torch Awards Gala, an all-day conference, and Collective Brunch. This momentous weekend will include readings by notable authors, guest speakers, writing workshops, networking opportunities, and more. “Bringing a literary celebration for Black women writers from around the world to Austin has always been a part of Torch's vision,” said executive director Amanda Johnston. “It is a testament to the community Torch is building around the world, and I cannot wait to see our community come together in celebration of literary arts in our hometown next year.” Torch started in 2006 when Amanda Johnston realized she was constantly traveling out of state to propel her career as a poet due to the minimal opportunities in Central Texas for writers of color. What started as a literary magazine and grassroots community transformed into a Black-led and serving nonprofit. Torch’s mission is to promote the work of Black women by publishing contemporary creative writing by emerging and experienced writers, to archive contributors' literary work for posterity and educational purposes, and to provide resources and opportunities for the advancement of Black women through literary arts. Torch has grown to support thousands of Black women on their literary journeys, pays professional rates for featured authors, has received the Pushcart Prize and the inaugural Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Writing Organization Award, has hosted 22 Torch Retreat Fellows in Austin, and has produced free workshops and events that amplify diverse voices across the literary landscape. To find out more information and save the date for the 20th Anniversary, please visit torchliteraryarts.org/agatheringofflames2026 . To donate to Torch and help fuel our mission, please visit https://www.torchliteraryarts.org/donate . ### About Torch Literary Arts Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today. Media Contact Information: Brittany Heckard Communications Associate bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org (512) 641-9251 Previous Next