Camille Wanliss

Camille Wanliss is a Jamaican-American writer born and raised in New York. A 2021 Pigeon Pages Essay Contest winner, her work has also been published in Raising Mothers, Anomaly, Kweli Journal, Weird Sister, The Feminist Wire, The Indypendent, and Clutch Magazine, among others. In 2016, she founded Galleyway, a site that champions diverse voices in literature, poetry, television, film and theater by spotlighting opportunities for writers of color. Camille is the recipient of the Adria Schwartz Award in Women’s Fiction and her short story “Leverage” was shortlisted for the Small Axe Literary Prize. Fellowships and residencies include Vermont Studio Center and Writing in the Margins. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.

Early Life
Camille is from Brooklyn, NY.

Goals
Her goals are to publish her novel-in-progress and sustain a career as a writer.

Inspirations
"'Much of my work explores the impact of familial estrangement and inherited trauma through the lens of Afro-Caribbean identity. As a first-generation American born to Jamaican immigrants, I have witnessed firsthand how frayed emotional ties can cross continents and span generations. As a writer, I craft familiar stories about unfamiliar people; those who are often relegated to the margins of mainstream storytelling. My aim is to create complex yet accurate portrayals of Caribbean identity while challenging the boundaries of Western culture, specifically through the decolonization of language.'"

Philosophy
"'There’s a lot of gatekeeping within the literary community, specifically around whose stories get to be told. Years ago, one of my grad school professors refused to workshop a short story of mine because he 'couldn’t relate to it.' And because he couldn’t see himself in a story about a Caribbean family, my work was deemed unworthy of public consumption. Since then, I have written from a purely decolonized lens. My goal is to never conform; to always stray from the confines of what is deemed 'proper' or 'acceptable' by Eurocentric standards.'"

Publications
Pigeon Pages, Raising Mothers, Kweli Journal, Anamoly, Weird Sisters, The Indypendent