Leadership Team
Nicole Shawan Junior, Founder & Executive Director
Nicole (they/them) is a counter-storyteller who was born & bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of inner-city life barely survived crack cocaine’s burn. Their work has been published in Oprah Daily, Guernica, Teachers & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, and many more. They’ve received residencies and fellowships from Tin House, Hedgebrook, NYFA, Lambda Literary, and more. They are an editor, an educator, and a felon committed to amplifying the invisibilized and insurgent narratives of justice-involved and poverty-born people of color. Learn more about Nicole.
Dannie Ruth, Writers’ Retreat Manager
Dannie (she/her) is a poet from Washington, D.C. Her work is featured in Toho Journal, The Inquisitive Eater, and her debut chapbook, *Inside the Orb of an Oracle*, is published with C&R Press and received the 2019 Summer Chapbook Prize. Dannie is an inaugural cohort member of SeaSalted Honey’s writing residency in Senegal, West Africa. She has developed a loyal client base of entrepreneurs, students, artists, and applicants as a freelancer and is passionate about providing quality writing and administrative services to each of them.
Danielle “Dee” Stelluto, Communications Manager
Dee (she/they) is a womanist, writer, blessed mother of two children, and audio engineer. They are Bronx-bound and of both Boricua and Italian descent. A lesbian and multidimensional being, Dee earned an AAS Degree in Digital Music Engineering at Hostos Community College. More recently, Dee obtained their BA Degree in Community Organizing and Women's and Gender Studies at CUNY. A RWW alum, they have engaged in a multitude of writing workshops across NYC. Currently, her creative non-fiction prose piece, “Best Gift I Can Give My Kids and Single Parenting Through the Pandemic” has been published in Mom Egg Review. In-between it all, they find great joy and peace in nature or riding the waves of music in their home studio.