I’ve been writing since I was a young girl. I was born in Virginia, but I have lived all over the country. I earned my MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University, where I was encouraged to embrace my voice, working with writers like Crystal Wilkinson and Samrat Upadhyay. After graduate school, I stopped writing for many years; simply lived, intuitively knowing I would return to my writing at another point in my life. During this “hiatus” time, I worked in various teaching jobs, including teaching military students on Navy frigates and teaching high school students in Detroit. I currently work at a community college in North Carolina.
As an artsy, quiet soul, I always found comfort in language for expression and healing. My poems explore health, family, spirituality, and Black womanhood and can be found in numerous literary journals. Recently, I was awarded the Ephemera Good Contrivance Farm Writing Residency and was a semifinalist in the 2024 Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize. I have also been involved with the Rockvale Writers’ Colony in College Grove, Tennessee.
Most days, I can be found hiking, reading, and holding sacred space for myself, family, friends, and ancestors. I see myself as an emerging poet who is always learning and just now starting to spread my wings. I am currently working on my first collection of poetry tentatively titled, “Mid-July.”
Publications
“Black Woman at ER midnight”
“altar”
“fed hudson”
“Sweets”
“Professional Development”
aaduna, Inc.
“Imposter Syndrome”
All My Relations
“Fish Scales”
“Last Day Working on a Navy Frigate in the Atlantic Ocean”
“Veterans Day”
Collateral Literary Journal
“In Autumn”
Talon Literary Review
"YouTube Comments”
“Dashboard Mirror”
Moria Literary Review
“On Leaving the Job”
Yellow Arrow Journal
“Grocery Store”
Packingtown Review
“A Lady”
“Food Pantry”
Rising Phoenix Review
“Hurricane Andrew”
Wards Literary Magazine
“The Hawk”
“Danny”
Mockingheart Review
“Family Video, Michigan”
Press Pause Press
“Good Friday: In the Morning”
Avalon Literary Review, Summer 2024 edition
Y2K: Apocalypse
Screen Door Review—Literary Voices of the Queer South
“every once in awhile i run across a student’s writing that makes chill bumps rise on my arms. this was the case with monique harris’s work. yes, she needed to work on her craft but her toni cade bambara attention to the tongue of her southern characters, her ability to make her scenes leap off the page, the emotional and psychological terrain of her stories, made me smile, made my heart skip, made me say ‘hmm, hmm, hmm’ the only way black women do when we know truth’s just been said. i’ve been calling her ‘lil toni’ ever since. and above and beyond that over the course of getting to know monique she has gone from student to sista/daughter/best cousin/ friend. her stories deserve our attention.
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Additional Honors and Awards
United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County Artist Grant, 2025
Poetry nominated for Best of Net anthology, Sundress Publications, 2024
Semifinalist, Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize, 2024
Awarded Ephemera Good Contrivance Farm Writers Residency, 2024
Attendee, Rockvale Writers’ Colony, 2023-2025
Lighthouse Writers Workshop, 2020
Defillipis and Rosselli Fellowship Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, 2008
Honorable Mention, Jean Shepherd Literary Prize, 2007
Fiction nominated for Best New American Voices, 2006-2007
William Cast Fellowship, Indiana University Writers’ Conference, 2005
Neal-Marhsall Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing, IU, 2005