Rashaun J. Allen is an Assistant Professor of English at Westchester Community College, who was also the first Fulbright scholar in SUNY Stony Brook’s MFA in Creative Writing & Literature program history. A Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Arts, Letters, and Numbers and Ragdale residency recipient whose three independently published poetry chapbooks: A Walk Through Brooklyn, In The Moment, and The Blues Cry For A Revolution became Amazon Kindle Best Sellers in African American Poetry. A Bookends Fellow Alum who was a Finalist for the 2^nd Westchester Poet Laureate in 2023, a Finalist for the 2021 Zone 3 Press Creative Nonfiction Award, and longlisted for the 2020 Dzanc Diverse Voice Prize. He has been a 2019 Tupelo Press 30/30 Project Poet, nominated for Sundress Publication’s 2018 Best of the Net Anthology in Creative Non-Fiction, and was a 2017 Steinberg Essay Contest Finalist in Fourth Genre. His commemorative poem “Unforget” was installed at 55 Clinton Place New Rochelle, New York. His writing has also appeared in The University of Hell Press’ 2020* The Year of the Asterisk: American Essays, TSR: The Southampton Review, Tishman Review, Rigorous, Auburn Avenue, Poui, and River Styx.

A Portfolio Snapshot

“Powerful, rigorous, and revealing, this outstanding collection conveys the emotional intensity of individual experiences with utmost precision while drawing a sharp, insightful critique of racism in the twenty-first century America.” – The Prairies Book Review

The Secret Handshake (fiction) Rigorous. Volume 8, November 2024.

Everyone Laughs (Non-fiction) Fourth Genre, Steinberg Essay Contest Finalist, August 2018.

Level Four (Non-fiction) Tishman Review, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2018 Best of the Net Nominee, 2017.