Kandace James
Kandace James (she/her) Kandace James is a multi-hyphenate writer, who uses a poetic lens as a tool for telling magical realistic stories. She writes ancestral and generational plays. She writes about Black and queer life, removed from the white gaze. She writes about freedom - not what you do with it, but how you get to it. At times, her work feel like a eulogy. Other times, they feel like a baptism, a family reunion. But they always feel like coming home. James received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
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 was a 2023 Core Apprentice, a 2024 MacDowell Fellow and a 2025 Vermont Studio Center Dramatic Writer Fellow. Her play, “Little Black Kids Don’t Go Outside,” has been selected for the Voices of Women Theatre Festival.
She wants so much for her ancestors' lives to have been full of joy. She wants and she wants, and yet she knows it is highly possible that it wasn't. Her writing is an altar for them.