Jae Nichelle

Louisiana-born Jae Nichelle (she/her) is the author of Grownfolk Blues (Host Publications, 2026), God Themselves (Andrews McMeel, 2023) and the chapbook The Porch (As Sanctuary) (YesYes Books, 2019). A 2026 Oregon Literary Fellow and a graduate fellow of The Watering Hole, Jae was a finalist for a 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship and won the inaugural John Lewis Writing Award in poetry from the Georgia Writers Association. Her poetry has appeared in Best New Poets 2020, the Washington Square Review, The Offing, Muzzle Magazine, and elsewhere.

Jae is a slam poetry champion, and her spoken word poems have been featured by Write About Now and Button Poetry. She has a passion for language, linguistics, social justice, and mental health and has published articles on these subjects as well as spoken at the Furious Flower Conference, Portland Book Festival, and the National Women’s March. She believes in all of our collective ability to contribute to radical change.