Chanel Spellman-Timmons is a Black, queer, Oakland-bred, Philadelphia-based poet and novelist. She graduated from the Mills College MFA in Creative Writing program, where she honed her skill of crafting character-driven stories with powerful prose. Her penchant for immersive storytelling earned her a coveted spot in the Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) residency, which provided an opportunity for Chanel to learn alongside acclaimed writers whose insight continues to shape her art.

In 2025, Chanel made the shortlist for the Speculative Literature Foundation award with an excerpt from her upcoming debut speculative thriller novel, Synchrony, which was also recently chosen as a feature on the popular No More Margins podcast. Also, two of Chanel’s pieces were highlighted on FicStack, a highly curated, central hub for exceptional fiction writing on Substack. Additionally, Chanel’s poetry was chosen for a forthcoming anthology on the art of silence, further showcasing her range and attentiveness to language.

Chanel is dedicated to creating subversive, imaginative worlds and writing complex characters who move through the familiar and the unsettling with vulnerable honesty. She views her storytelling as a lifelong archiving practice of creative Black culture that requires curiosity and a willingness to explore the spectrum of what it means to be human.