About Cherish Cleveland

Cherish Cleveland has been writing for as long as she can remember. Long before she knew what poetry was, she understood what it felt like. Words became a refuge early on—a way to name the world when it felt too heavy to hold. Storytelling runs deep in her bloodline; with both a grandmother and an aunt as authors, language has always been an inheritance shaped by memory, survival, and care.

Raised by her maternal grandparents in a working-class, close-knit community, Cherish grew up surrounded by love, resilience, and a deep reverence for people. While material resources were limited, imagination was abundant. There was never a rigid career plan—only a quiet certainty that she wanted to change the world, and that words would be her way in.

Now studying Creative Writing, Cherish writes at the intersection of memory, faith, and becoming. Her work is deeply personal and spiritually reflective, shaped by lived experience and inspired by writers such as Toni Morrison, whose reverence for Black interior life continues to guide her voice. She aspires to be a poet, educator, and songwriter—someone who teaches, sings, and writes truth into rooms that need it.