{{Short description|American poet and memoirist (born 1968)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox writer | name = Shonda Buchanan | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1968}} | birth_place = Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S. | occupation = Poet, memoirist, academic | education = BA, MA, Loyola Marymount University; MFA, Antioch University | employer = Western Michigan University | citizenship = American | genre = Poetry, memoir | notableworks = ''Black Indian'' (2019) | awards = Indie New Generation Book Award (2020) }}
'''Shonda Buchanan''' (born 1968) is an American poet, memoirist, and academic whose work centers on race, identity, migration, and the intersections of African American and Native American experience. She is an associate professor of English at Western Michigan University, where she teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing, and is on the MFA faculty at Alma College.<ref name="wmufaculty">{{cite web |title=Shonda Buchanan |url=https://wmich.edu/english/directory/buchanan-shonda |publisher=Western Michigan University, Department of English |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> She is also the founding literary editor of Harriet Tubman Press and a consulting curator poet for The Broad.<ref name="poetryfoundation">{{cite web |title=Shonda Buchanan |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/shonda-buchanan |publisher=Poetry Foundation |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>
Buchanan's memoir ''Black Indian'' (2019), published by Wayne State University Press, received the 2020 Indie New Generation Book Award and was included on the ''PBS NewsHour'' list of recommended reading on institutional racism.<ref name="pbsnewshour">{{cite web |title=What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-read-listen-to-and-watch-to-learn-about-institutional-racism |publisher=PBS NewsHour |date=June 5, 2020 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> It was reviewed in the ''Los Angeles Review of Books'', ''Kirkus Reviews'', and ''Foreword'', and was a finalist for the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards.<ref name="americanlegacy">{{cite web |title=2024 American Legacy Book Awards |url=https://www.americanlegacyawards.com/2024awardannouncement.html |publisher=American Legacy Book Awards |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Buchanan was born in 1968 on North Edwards Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up on the city's Northside and Eastside.<ref name="secondwave">{{cite web |last=Staff |title=A Kalamazoo poet's journey home and her upcoming book on Nina Simone, 'The High Priestess of Soul' |url=https://secondwavemedia.com/a-kalamazoo-poets-journey-home-and-her-upcoming-book-on-nina-simone-the-high-priestess-of-soul/ |publisher=Second Wave Media |date=January 30, 2025 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> Her biography states that she descends from African (Mende), Coharie, Choctaw, Eastern Band Cherokee, and European ancestors.<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> When she was 8, her family moved to a farm in Mattawan; she returned to Kalamazoo at 16 to attend Kalamazoo Central High School.<ref name="secondwave" />
Buchanan earned a BA in English (1997) and an MA in English (2003) from Loyola Marymount University, and an MFA in Creative Writing (2010) from Antioch University.<ref name="wmufaculty" />
== Career ==
=== Academic positions === Buchanan has taught creative writing, American literature, and BIPOC literature for over two decades. Before joining Western Michigan University, she held positions at Loyola Marymount University, California State University, Northridge, and Hampton University.<ref name="wmufaculty" /><ref name="poetryfoundation" /> She is an associate professor of English at Western Michigan University and a faculty member in the MFA program at Alma College.<ref name="wmufaculty" />
=== Journalism and editorial work === Buchanan has worked as a journalist for over 25 years, with work published in the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Indian Country Today'', ''The International Review of African American Art'', and ''AWP's The Writer's Chronicle''.<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> She is the founding literary editor of Harriet Tubman Press, which publishes books by and about African Americans.<ref name="poetryfoundation" />
== Works ==
=== Memoir === Buchanan's memoir ''Black Indian'' was published by Wayne State University Press in August 2019 as part of the Made in Michigan Writers Series.<ref name="wsupress">{{cite web |title=Black Indian |url=https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814345801/ |publisher=Wayne State University Press |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> The 320-page book traces her family's multiracial history across six generations, documenting the hidden histories of families with mixed African American and Native American ancestry.<ref name="wsupress" /> In a 2019 interview with ''The Rumpus'', Buchanan described the memoir as "a prayer for my family" that took ten years to write.<ref name="rumpus">{{cite web |last=Caraballo |first=Lily |title=A Storm Underneath: Talking with Shonda Buchanan |url=https://therumpus.net/2019/09/30/the-rumpus-interview-with-shonda-buchanan/ |work=The Rumpus |date=September 30, 2019 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>
=== Poetry === * ''Who's Afraid of Black Indians?'' (Poetica Publishing, 2012) — nominated for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award and the Library of Virginia Book Awards<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> * ''Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country'' (San Francisco Bay Press, 2017; {{ISBN|978-0-9968350-5-3}}) * ''The Lost Songs of Nina Simone'' (RIZE Press/Running Wild Press, May 2025; {{ISBN|978-1-960018-98-4}}) — a poetry collection exploring the life and legacy of Nina Simone<ref name="antiochalumni">{{cite web |title=With New Poetry Collection, MFA Alum Shonda Buchanan Honors Nina Simone |url=https://commonthread.antioch.edu/with-new-poetry-collection-mfa-alum-shonda-buchanan-honors-nina-simone/ |publisher=Antioch University Common Thread |date=May 20, 2025 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref><ref name="secondwave" />
== Critical reception == ''Black Indian'' received attention from several national review outlets. ''Kirkus Reviews'' called it "a unique account of the damage inflicted on blacks and Native Americans in the late 1800s" and noted that Buchanan "tackles her difficulties with humor," while observing that the writing was strongest when examining how federal policies fractured her sense of identity.<ref name="kirkus">{{cite web |title=Black Indian |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/shonda-buchanan/black-indian/ |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=May 19, 2019 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>
Writing in the ''Los Angeles Review of Books'', Eisa Nefertari Ulen described the book as "a quintessentially American narrative" and praised Buchanan for deconstructing the "black-white binary" through documentation of mixed-race ancestry rendered invisible in official records.<ref name="larb">{{cite web |last=Ulen |first=Eisa Nefertari |title=Locs in the Sweat Lodge: On Shonda Buchanan's "Black Indian" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/locs-in-the-sweat-lodge-on-shonda-buchanans-black-indian/ |work=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=November 6, 2019 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> Karl Helicher, reviewing for ''Foreword'', gave the memoir five stars and wrote that it was "an emotionally draining memoir that is also resonant in its discussions of poverty's destructive forces."<ref name="foreword">{{cite web |last=Helicher |first=Karl |title=Black Indian |url=https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/black-indian/ |work=Foreword Reviews |date=2019 |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref>
The ''Hawaiʻi Review of Books'' conducted an interview about the memoir, and an American Library Association review described it as a "grimly haunting memoir" that "reveals many aspects of American racism and sexism."<ref name="hawaiirob">{{cite web |title=Black Indian Truth |url=https://hawaiireviewofbooks.com/stories/black-indian-truth |work=Hawaiʻi Review of Books |access-date=February 25, 2026}}</ref> Academic analysis of the work includes a 2021 University of Michigan doctoral dissertation examining Indigenous subjectivity in contemporary memoir, which situates ''Black Indian'' within a broader tradition of Native American life writing.<ref name="whiteduck2021">{{cite thesis |last=Whiteduck |first=Mallory |title=Narrating Indigenous Subjectivity |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/167520 |publisher=University of Michigan |year=2021 |type=Doctoral dissertation}}</ref>
== Honors and awards == * 2020 Indie New Generation Book Award, for ''Black Indian''<ref name="wsupress" /> * 2024 American Legacy Book Awards finalist (Autobiography/Memoir), for ''Black Indian''<ref name="americanlegacy" /> * ''PBS NewsHour'' "Top 20 books to read to learn about institutional racism" (2020)<ref name="pbsnewshour" /> * Three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee<ref name="secondwave" /> * PEN America Emerging Voices fellow<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> * Sundance Institute Writing Arts fellow<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> * California Arts Council fellow<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> * Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs fellow<ref name="wmufaculty" /> * Jentel Artist Residency fellow<ref name="poetryfoundation" /> * Oxfam Ambassador<ref name="wmufaculty" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://shondabuchanan.com/ Official website] * [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/shonda-buchanan Shonda Buchanan] at the Poetry Foundation * [https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814345801/ ''Black Indian''] at Wayne State University Press * [https://wmich.edu/english/directory/buchanan-shonda Faculty profile] at Western Michigan University
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, Shonda}} Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:Writers from Kalamazoo, Michigan Category:American memoirists Category:American women memoirists Category:African-American poets Category:Western Michigan University faculty Category:Antioch University alumni Category:Loyola Marymount University alumni Category:American people of Cherokee descent Category:Coharie people Category:American people of Choctaw descent Category:21st-century American poets Category:Poets from Michigan Category:African-American women writers Category:21st-century American women poets