A Black trans woman with disabilities, Taiwana Shambley is a speculative fiction writer, proud barista, & award-winning teaching artist from the North End neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. A resident of Baltimore, what she likes to call the City of Dolls in respect to its Black trans woman community, Taiwana works at the intersection of creative writing, community, and coffee to empower queer, trans, disabled, and youth voices through a Black feminist lens. Taiwana is a fiction editor of Chrysalis Magazine for Trans Youth, the organizer and creator of the seasonal Torches: an Emerging Writer’s Circle (2026), a 2023 Loft/MISA Excellence in Teaching Fellow, a 2023 Minnesota Colleges & Universities Write Like Us Mentor, and you might’ve seen her face on the cover of Minnesota Women’s Press. Her fiction has been recognized with grants from the Loft Literary Center, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. 

When she isn’t shaking ass in Baltimore’s queer clubs, Taiwana’s writing interlinked stories for the Wanaverse led by her debut collection, Revenge of the Hood Bitches: Angry Black Girl Fiction and Poetry, and starring her locally long-awaited debut novel, I Can Be Free Yesterday. In Revenge, she wields revenge and anger as literary devices, exploring what they can do on the page for marginalized experiences, specifically Black cis and trans girls, in what she hopes is a radicalizing read. Taiwana is a master fiction writer (Master of Fine Arts, Antioch University Los Angeles 2025) and a 2021 graduate of Augsburg University in English (creative writing) and African American Studies (radical social movements) where as part of a coalition of students, faculty, and staff she co-led the creation of the school’s first ethnic studies department. She’s worked as the Inaugural Open Road Fund Program Associate for Nexus Community Partners and the Inaugural End Youth Prisons MN Campaign Lead for the Legal Rights Center.