Kandace James is a playwright who uses a poetic lens as a tool for telling magical realistic stories. She creates stories centering Black, queer, masculine-presenting women. At times, her plays feel like a eulogy. Other times they feel like a baptism, a family reunion. But they always feel like coming home. Her play This Is How You Capture The Light was awarded The Hip Hop Theatre Creator Award, One-Act, The Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, One-Act, and The Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award, One-Act. She was a National Finalist for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play, as well as The John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play for This Is How You Capture The Light at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Nationals (KCACTF). Her screenplay Stellar Collision received the $25,000 First Place Award in the 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition at Carnegie Mellon University and was nominated for the 2023 Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize. James is currently fascinated with the concept of Afrofuturism and Black Westerns centering queer women. (www.kmeshgallery.com.)

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