Shantell Powell
BIO
Biography

Raised on the land and off the grid in rural and remote areas across Canada, Shantell Powell is a swamp hag and elder goth who grew up in an apocalyptic cult but got better. She’s a graduate of The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s horror residency, The Writers’ Studio at Simon Fraser University (speculative fiction and poetry), LET(s) Lead Academy at Yale University, the LGBTQ+ Novel Immersive at GrubStreet, the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, and is a 2026 McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House) scholar. She’s an Aurora finalist, a Best of the Net, Pushcart, Rhysling, and Journey prize nominee, and a winner of Brave New Weird. Her writing appears in Augur, The Deadlands, The Malahat Review, Nightmare, and dozens more magazines and anthologies. She has a reverent approach to nature and an irreverent approach to religion. When she’s not writing, she wrangles chinchillas and gets filthy in the woods. 

ADDRESS
City: Kitchener, Province/Territory: Ontario
EMAIL
GENRE
Speculative fiction and poetry. Horror. Magic realism. Ecofiction. New Weird.
LANGUAGES
English
PUBLICATIONS
Publications
AWARDS
Awards
Name
Shantell Powell
LINKS
Links
Shan's Mastodon account
Nudity is Only Skin Deep
Shan's BlueSky
EQUITY INITIATIVE
As part of the Union’s Equity Implementation Plan, we are committed to increasing awareness of authors who are Black, Indigenous, racialized, LGBTQI2S, or living with a disability. This author identifies as:
Members who identify as:
Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized
LGBTQI2S
Living with a disability
Programs & Interests
Interested in participating Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program:
All members are eligible for the Union’s Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program. Are you interested in participating in this pro
No
Interested in participating in the Northern Ontario WITS program:
The Union’s Northern Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools program funds in-person visits to northern Ontario schools when possible. Ar
No