A Black trans woman with disabilities, Taiwana Shambley is a speculative fiction writer & award-winning teaching artist from St. Paul’s North End neighborhood. Based in Minneapolis, and guided by political anger and black radical tradition, Taiwana’s mission is to empower queer, trans, and disabled youth voices, through both her writing and by facilitating storytelling skills for others. Taiwana is 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. She is currently at work on her debut novel, I CAN BE FREE YESTERDAY, a young adult speculative fiction novel about a disabled girl from her hometown, North End, St. Paul, who turns to violence to protect herself from the ableist kids at her school. She sees and hears the spirits of late abolitionists George Jackson and Jonathan Jackson and they continually tell her to crashout against the wishes of her mother, the first Black and first woman governor of Minnesota. Governor Bowman, fed up with her daughter’s rogue and unlawful behavior, enlists the national guard to stomp ‘Lo and her alliance of local gang members’ effort to declare North End an ableism-free and autonomous, community controlled zone. Meanwhile ‘Lo’s best friends Akita and Curtis are concerned for ‘Lo and the impact that violence, however righteous, has on her mental health and sanity. The conflict between ‘Lo and her mother brings St. Paul to its knees, changing their relationship and the shape of the city forever. It’s Taiwana’s debut novel and forthcoming with updates, along with a book collection of fiction and poems titled REVENGE OF THE HOOD BITCHES, at her mailing list below.

A graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts Program at Antioch University Los Angeles, Taiwana is a 2021 graduate of Augsburg University in English and African American Studies, 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.