Writer | DéLana R.A. Dameron is an artist who believes in the power of storytelling to move people. Her debut novel Redwood Court will be published in 2024 by Dial Press. Dameron is the author of the poetry collections Weary Kingdom (2017) and How God Ends Us (2009), published by University of South Carolina Press. In addition to a BA in History from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Dameron holds a MFA in Poetry from NYU where she was a Goldwater Hospital Writer’s workshop fellow. She has published in Kweli, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and others.  She holds fellowships from Cave Canem, Soul Mountain, and Saltonstall Foudation for the Arts, and was named the 2018 Summer Poet in Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. 

Cultural Caretaker | As a creative culture-maker with more than 15 years experience in non-profit fundraising and program development in the areas of arts & culture and education, DéLana R.A. Dameron’s storytelling practice forms the bedrock of her fundraising expertise, organizational strategy, and community-building. In 2013, she began Red Olive Culture Commons, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fundraising and organizational development for small and mid-sized arts & culture organizations. She is also the founder of Black Art Futures Fund, and from 2017—2022 fundraised and distributed more than $600,000 in unrestricted grants to Black arts and cultural organizations across the US whose budgets remained below $500,000. In 2021, she launched Saloma Acres, a 22-acre cultural and equestrian playspace for adults in Blythewood, South Carolina, and concurrently launched THE ESCAPE at NEARVIEW a DIY residency space for Black artists and cultural workers to escape and create and dream.

After 13 years abroad in New York City (Harlem and Bed Stuy), she returned in 2019 to her native Columbia, South Carolina.