Naima Yael Tokunow (she/her) is a communications professional, educator, writer, artist, and editor. Her work (and life) explores Black femme identity, kinship, and futurity. She is the author of three chapbooks, MAKE WITNESS, published in 2016 by Zoo Cake Press, Planetary Bodies, out from Black Warrior Review in 2019, and Shadow Black, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jericho Brown for the Frontier Digital Chapbook Prize in 2020.

She is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a TENT Residency Fellow & has attended The Home School workshop in Miami. Currently, she is the 2022 - 2024 Nightboat Editorial Fellow, edits for Tupelo Quarterly, and reads for Nat. Brut.  

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