thandiwe adofo is a writer, director, poet, and filmmaker from New Jersey. They grew up immersed in black radical literature, theory, and art, which has greatly influenced the way they approach their artistic practice. With a deep love for writers and poets such as Amiri Baraka, bell hooks, and Toni Morrison, thandiwe channels their energy into writing visceral, emotionally intense, and fundamentally political writing that resists oppressive powers against the Black Diaspora. thandiwe graduated from Howard University in 2024 with a BA in English and Creative Writing and took a gap year to travel the world by attending artistic residencies. A month in Berlin, a few weeks in Costa Rica, a summer in the redwoods, and thandiwe wrote a manuscript about the Democratic Republic of Congo and the atrocities of the genocide, currently funded and backed by foreign powers. Within the same gap year, thandiwe was published in seven different journals and was then accepted into CUNY Writers’ Institute as a fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year and plans to workshop a different manuscript while in attendance.

thandiwe currently acts as an editor/contributor of 20 Something Files Magazine as well as Co-Coordinator for Sundress Publications’ Poets in Pajamas. thandiwe continues to travel, create, and play their drums in the meantime as they go through this transitional period of their life.