Tatiana Johnson-Boria (she/her) is a writer, educator, and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores trauma, healing, race, identity, and the complex magic of mothering. She is the author of Nocturne in Joy (Sundress Publications, 2023), winner of the 2024 Julia Ward Howe Book Prize in Poetry. Through her writing, she seeks to dismantle systems of oppression while cultivating space for joy, resilience, and spiritual transformation.
Tatiana is an award-winning writer and recipient of fellowships and grants from Tin House, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MacDowell, the Brother Thomas Fellowship, and the St. Botolph Club Foundation, among others. She’s the winner of the Matt Clark Poetry Prize at New Delta Review (2021) and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net recognition. Tatiana has also been named a finalist for the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry at Anhinga Press, the Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize, The Southern Humanities Review Auburn Witness Prize, and the 92Y Discovery Contest. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review Online, The Cincinnati Review, Transition Magazine, and many other publications.
Tatiana is also an experienced educator and mentor. She is currently a visiting lecturer at Framingham State University, and has served as an affiliated faculty member at Emerson College, teaching courses on poetry, composition, and intersectional identity within poetics. She currently teaches at GrubStreet and has previously led workshops at Catapult and the Boston Center for Adult Education. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in accessibility, social justice, and the power of storytelling as a tool for self-discovery and change.
In addition to her literary work, Tatiana has an extensive background in strategic communications and marketing and is founder and principal strategist at her own consultancy, Johnson-Boria Creative LLC. As a strategist, she has developed messaging and tactics for mission-driven organizations, ensuring that their narratives focus on people, their lives, and their communities.
Tatiana holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and a BA in English and Cinema & Media Studies from Simmons University. She is represented by Lauren Scovel at Laura Gross Literary.
Learn more about her work at johnsonboriacreative.com.
