Shakeema Smalls is from Georgetown, South Carolina. Her work has been published in a variety of outlets including Honey Literary, Hayden’s Ferry, Emergent Literary, Tidal Basin Review, Root Work Journal, Radius Lit, Free Black Space, Vinyl Poetry and Prose, Rigorous, and A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine, among others. She is a Tin House Workshop and VONA alum as well as a PEN America 2022 Emerging Voices Fellow. She has upcoming work in The Ocean State Review, Fruit Journal, and Foglifter.