All Faculty Profiles
Kashawn Taylor
by Kasey Noss
Gotham teacher Kashawn Taylor has always been a writer, ever since he was a child who used to create “mini books” on looseleaf based on his favorite TV Series—Pokemon, Sailor Moon. Yet he didn’t call himself a writer then.
He first started to take writing more seriously in high school, where he took his first creative writing class. But even then, he didn’t call himself a writer.
He didn’t call himself a writer in college, where he double-majored in English and psychology with a concentration in creative writing, and he didn’t call himself a writer after that, when he got his MA in poetry.
Since then, Kashawn has been published in Poetry Magazine, the Indiana Review, the Offing, Oyster River Pages, and more. His first poetry collection, subhuman, was published by Wayfarer Books. He is this year’s guest judge for PEN America’s Prison Writing Awards.
And still, at a recent dinner, when Kashawn was asked what he did, he stumbled.
“He’s a writer,” his friend interjected.
“It comes and goes,” Kashawn says of his internal perception of his profession. But the fact still remains that Kashawn Taylor has always been a writer. And when it comes to other writers, Kashawn’s stance is firm.
“I believe that anyone is a writer whenever they say they are a writer. Whether or not you are getting published frequently, or infrequently, or you’ve never published anything at all; as long as you’re dedicated to your craft, and you’re dedicated to telling stories, and you’re putting in the work to make those stories the best they can be…that’s when you can call yourself a writer.”
The path to “becoming” a writer, if such a thing exists, has been a tumultuous one for Kashawn. From August 2022 to March 2025, Kashawn was incarcerated. The experience has shaped his writing “in a big way,” not least because it motivated him to hold himself accountable to his craft.
“By the time I went in, I had had an MA in English and Creative Writing, and I had done nothing with it,” Kashawn says. “I figured that I should try to use my time wisely.”
So he did. He got up at 5:30 every morning and read before the daily meeting at 8:00, then read more at night before bed. During the day, when he had time, he wrote everything he felt compelled to write: poetry, memoir, short stories, essays. The first essay he ever published was written from prison, as was subhuman.
Now, in addition to teaching classes at Gotham, Kashawn works full-time for the Prison Journalism Project, a national nonprofit that teaches incarcerated writers how to tell their own stories and provides a platform for them to do so.
“I'm really, really excited and grateful that now I get to not only teach at Gotham and teach the craft of creative writing, but I also get to work alongside a bunch of great people at Prison Journalism Project who have a mission to change the narrative about incarceration, as well as increase the literacy and education levels of those who are incarcerated.”
In terms of advice for young writers, especially those who have been marginalized in some way, Kashawn has this to offer: “Write truthfully and don't shy away from brutal vulnerability.”
