Aja Couchois Duncan is a social justice coach and capacity builder of Ojibwe, French and Scottish descent living on the ancestral and stolen land of the Coast Miwok people. 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 second book, Vestigial was published in 2021 by Litmus Press. Her forthcoming book, The Intimacy Trials will be published in 2026 by the University of Chicago Press as part of its Phoenix Poets series. When not writing or working, Aja can be found running the west Marin hills, training with horses, or weaving small pine needle baskets. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and a variety of other degrees and credentials to certify her as worthy. Great Spirit knew it all along.