Atena O. Danner insists upon Black liberation and boundless curiosity. Her poems range from kitchen-table specificity to universal relatability, covering topics including neurodiversity, human connection, and collective liberation. Atena has recently published poems in ‘Raising Mothers’ online, 'Shelter in This Place: Meditations on 2020,' 'Struggle, Elevate, Celebrate: An Anthology of Women’s Voices' and in the inaugural issue of ‘understory quarterly.' She is an alum of the Hurston/Wright Writers Week, a former In Surreal Life Surreal Scholar, and has been a featured reader for The Guild Complex Presents Exhibit B series. Atena collaborates as a member of Surviving the Mic, a collaborative collective of survivors dedicated to creating brave and affirming creative spaces for survivors of trauma. In their home north of Chicago, near the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires and of the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations Atena lives with her partner and 2 free Black children. Her first poetry collection, ‘Incantations for Rest’ is available now via Skinner House Books.
