Shonda Buchanan

Author of five books, Shonda Buchanan was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a daughter of Mixed Bloods, tri-racial and tri-ethnic African American, American Indian and European-descendant families who migrated from North Carolina and Virginia in the mid-1700 to 1800s to Southwestern Michigan. Black Indian, her memoir, which won the Indie New Generation Book Award for Memoir and was chosen by PBS NewsHour as a "top 20 books to read" to learn about institutional racism (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-read-listen-to-and-watch-to-learn-about-institutional-racism), begins the saga of these migration stories of Free People of Color communities exploring identity, ethnicity, landscape and loss. Her collection of poetry, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians? was nominated for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the Library of Virginia Book Awards. An award-winning poet and educator, Shonda is a Sundance Writing Arts Fellow, a California Community Foundation Fellow, a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and Literary Editor of Harriet Tubman Press. In addition to her work as a literary activist, a teaching artist and a mentor for young writers, she's taught at Hampton University, William & Mary College (Writer-in-Residence), California State University, Northridge and Mt. San Antonio College. Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Shonda received an MFA at Antioch University. She lives and writes in Los Angeles. Follow @shondabuchanan or contact Shonda at info@ShondaBuchanan.com or visit www.ShondaBuchanan.com.