Judy Juanita's poetry collection, Manhattan my ass, you're in Oakland, won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2021. Her story collection, The High Price of Freeways, won the Tartt Fiction Award in 2021 and was published by Livingston Press in 2022. Her short story, "The Black House," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022, and her poem "Bling" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. The long prose poem in Gawdzilla, "The Gun as Performance Poem," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014. Her semi-autobiographical novel Virgin Soul is about a young woman who joins the Black Panther Party in the 60s (Viking, 2013). Her collection of essays, DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland [EquiDistance Press, 2016] examines the intersection of race, gender, politics, and spirituality as experienced by a black activist and self-described "feminist foot soldier." The collection was a distinguished finalist in OSU's 2016 Non/Fiction Collection Prize. A native of Berkeley who grew up and resides in Oakland, she teaches writing at University of California, Berkeley.
