Aja Couchois Duncan
She/Her/We
Aja Couchois Duncan is a two spirit, (queer) writer, social justice coach and capacity builder of Ojibwe, French and Scottish descent who lives on the ancestral and stolen land of the Coastal Miwok people. She is a senior consultant and coach with Change Elemental. Her debut collection, Restless Continent (Litmus Press, 2016) was selected by Entropy Magazine as one of the best poetry collections of 2016 and awarded the California Book Award for Poetry in 2017. In 2020, Sweet Land—a collaborative opera project which brought together composers Raven Chacon and Du Yun, librettists Aja Couchois Duncan and Douglas Kearney, and co-directors Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon—was produced in the Los Angeles State Historic Park to critical acclaim and named the Best Opera of 2020 by the Music Critics Association of North America. Her newest book, Vestigial is just out from Litmus Press. When not writing or working, Aja can be found running the west Marin hills with her Australian Cattle Dog Dublin, training with horses, or weaving small pine needle baskets.
📍 LOCATION: Bay Area
✨ INTERESTS: Leadership, arts and culture practice, equity, five elemental, liberation and love
🌎 LANGUAGES:
