Naima Yael Tokunow (she/her) is a communications professional, educator, writer, artist, and editor whose work—and life—explores Black femme identity, kinship, and futurity.

 

She is the editor of the anthology Permanent Record (Nightboat, 2025) and the author of three chapbooks: Shadow Black (Frontier Digital Chapbook Prize, 2020), selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown; Planetary Bodies (Black Warrior Review, 2019); and MAKE WITNESS (Zoo Cake Press, 2016).

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A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and TENT Residency Fellow, Naima has also attended The Home School workshop in Miami. She served as the 2022–2024 Nightboat Editorial Fellow and is currently an editor-at-large for Nightboat Books as well as a contributing editor for Tupelo Quarterly.

Her collage work has been featured in the collaborative project daftar asfar.

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Naima lives on unceded Tiwa land (also known as Albuquerque) with her husband and children. She is blessed to be Black and alive.