writer
Whether curating curriculum, teaching workshop classes, creating podcasts, or ghostwriting memoirs, Shanisha has the willpower and clarity of mind to make any writing project come to life.
the girl
behind the words
Welcome to the writing world of Shanisha Branch, a Black woman writer from small town Portsmouth, Va couched between Norfolk and Virginia Beach all of which give her writing grit and vitality.
Shanisha’s journey started out at Virginia Wesleyan College where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and French Studies. In between substitute teaching and blogging, she decided it was time to pursue her love for writing at the academic level and began her studies at Old Dominion University, earning a MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on creative non-fiction. While there, she gained the tools necessary to make her words move people. Yet, she did not stay barred to one genre. A poet at heart, she knew the colorful form of poetry would allow her nonfiction (and fiction writing) brighter. Shanisha is a multifaceted writer with her poetry displayed through Norfolk Arts program Poetry on the Pavement, her nonfiction in literary journals like The West Trade Review and her communication skills voiced on her podcast, The Honest Virgin, on Youtube.
With over eight years as a full-time high school teacher, Shanisha currently writes curriculum for her church youth department. She secures grants for nonprofits and small businesses that can’t quite find their unique voice written in a grant proposal. Shanisha has ghostwritten mini-autobiographies, copyedited and proofread articles, novels, chapbooks and songs. She now teaches at ODU as an adjunct professor and freelance writes full time all while writing a newsletter and podcast via Substack called The Honest Virgin where she discusses sexuality, relationships, singlehood and holiness. She is a visionary, a fire starter and pioneer being one of the first from her family and hometown to dream in color.
Shanisha 