Danielle Mitchell (she/her)
is an intersectional feminist, poet & writer, and teaching artist.
Her poems have been published in journals such as Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, The Leveler, Baltimore Review, Nailed Magazine and others.
She has performed (and hosted!) on stages all over Southern California including the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Beyond Baroque, and the House of Blues. Danielle has received scholarships to travel to Patmos Island, Greece to study poetry, as well as grants from Poets & Writers and the Ashaki M. Jackson No Barriers Grant from the Women Who Submit. She is the inaugural winner of the Editor's Prize from Mary Magazine and the Editor's Choice Award from The Mas Tequila Review.
Danielle has served as a poetry editor for Wherewithal and the Redlands Poetry Review. She is an alumna of the Community of Writers in Olympic Valley, California and holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Creative Writing and Women’s & Gender Studies.
Danielle’s work is fiercely feminist, aiming to disrupt misogyny and dethrone the male gaze. She performs machine collaborations, writes prose poems, and plays with hybrid forms. Her newest work-in-progress explores break-ups, including her cruise ship #breakcation that accidentally went viral on Tik Tok gaining over 1.2 million views.
Danielle loves to help writers return to their vibrant inner lives.
Many of Danielle’s mentees have taken long breaks from their creativity to establish a career, raise children, or caretake for their loved ones. Some of them were never nurtured or respected as artists and had to abandon or downplay that side of themselves in order to survive. Danielle helps writers rekindle their creativity. She also assists professional writers as they continue their learning journeys outside of secondary education.
As Founding Director of The Poetry Lab, Danielle has facilitated over 180 workshops, including feedback sessions, 4 and 5 week courses, and generative writing classes on a variety of topics. She has taught at Hugo House, the Boca de Oro festival, various high schools, and at The Poetry Lab. She highlights the importance of robust reading habits, especially working from a diverse living library of poets. She also enjoys focusing on new and invented forms, prose poetry, pop culture and technology.
Danielle believes everyone has written poetry at one time in their lives and loves to see people through seasons of creative expansion. In one-on-one sessions she works to help writers revitalize their manuscripts, renew their love of language, and approach their craft with radical self-compassion.
