Nicole Shawan Junior (they/us) is a creative nonfiction and speculative fiction literary artist. Junior’s writing is anthologized in Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing (Blair) and The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison (Haymarket Books). Guernica, the Rumpus, Oprah Daily, and others have published their essays. Their writing is Best of the Net-nominated and a Longreads Top 5 of the Week recipient. Junior is working on three book projects: a speculative fiction novel, Ire & the Girl, Slice; an eco-horror novella, Keepers; and a memoir, Zombie: A Spelling of My Name.

A Haymarket Books Writing Freedom Fellow, Tin House Debut Author Over 40 residency recipient, Hedgebrook writer-in-residence, Narrative Initiative Changemaker Author, Lambda Literary Emerging Queer Voice, New York Foundation for the Arts Geri Ashur Fellow, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference contributing writer, Junior has received myriad writing residencies and fellowships.

Junior served as an adjunct creative writing professor at The University of the Arts, partnered with Carnegie Hall to teach creative writing to systems-impacted writers on felony probation, led Black Femme Collective as its editor-in-chief, and held positions on the editorial teams of Women's Studies Quarterly of the Feminist Press, SLICE Magazine, and Raising Mothers, where they also curated a limited column written by and for justice-involved Black women. Junior has also guest edited for The Massachusetts Review and The Rumpus. 

Junior draws on decades of arts and advocacy work to center and amplify the literary art of BIPOC, systems-impacted, LGBTQIA+, and other invisibilized people. They are the Managing Director of the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) at Johns Hopkins University.

Prior to joining the APWA, Junior was the Executive Director of Roots. Wounds. Words., Deputy Director of Prison Writing at PEN America, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, and a felony domestic violence Assistant District Attorney at the Brooklyn DA’s Office. In their spare time, they directed Fordham University’s Mock Trial Program and taught trial advocacy at Fordham University’s School of Law.

Junior spends their time listening to spirit, crafting narratives, mentoring emerging writers, editing literary art, traveling across Africa and Black lands, and hosting Of Monsters, a speculative fiction podcast. Born and bred in Brooklyn, they live in the mid-Atlantic region with their two daughters and feline familiar (a black cat, of course).