Today we’d like to introduce you to Ebony Aya.
Hi Ebony, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started Aya Collective Publishing out of a desire to create meaningful opportunities for Black women writers—spaces where we could write in community with one another, develop our voices, and see our stories in print. Founded in 2017, Aya Collective has grown from that initial vision into a publishing and writing community committed to supporting Black women in telling, preserving, and sharing our stories.
To date, we have published several independent texts, including *The Gospel According to a Black Woman* (2020), *Incomplete Stories: On Loss, Love, and Hope* (2023), and *Reconsidering Eve: Towards a Deepened Consciousness* (2024), as well as two anthologies, *Let the Black Women Say Ase’* (2022) and *Finding the Voice Within* (2024). In 2026, we published *Remembered and Living Text: Black Women Living with Endometriosis*, a book centering the experiences and knowledge of Black women living with endometriosis. We are also preparing to release an anthology highlighting Black women’s experiences in higher education, alongside a project exploring writing as a sacred practice.
Publishing, however, has always been only one part of Aya Collective’s work. Over the years, we have hosted dozens of writing workshops, gatherings, and opportunities for Black women to deepen their writing practices and build community. In 2021, we launched Sacred Saturdays, a recurring writing space rooted in reflection, spiritual practice, and the sacredness of our stories. This year, we are expanding this work through two writing fellowships: one focused on archiving and preserving family and community histories, and another supporting emerging authors in bringing new texts into publication.
The work we do is vibrant, evolving, and deeply rooted in a belief that Black women’s stories matter—not only because they deserve to be told, but because they deserve to be preserved and carried forward. As we grow our writers, we are also growing our readership, our community, and the circle of people committed to this work. At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to the intersection of truth-telling, storytelling, and legacy building. We are not simply creating books; we are creating spaces and practices through which Black women can leave something behind for those who come after us.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road. Finding the funding needed to sustain and grow our work has been one of our biggest challenges. Since our founding in 2017, we have received only three grants to support our work. As a small, independent, Black woman-led publisher, we have had to build much of what we do with limited resources. Yet, in spite of these financial constraints, we have continued to move our work forward in significant ways, publishing books, creating writing spaces, supporting writers, and expanding our programming.
Marketing has presented another significant challenge. We are not a mainstream publisher, and our focus on centering the stories, experiences, and knowledge of Black women does not always receive the visibility or institutional support it deserves. We have therefore had to be intentional about building our own pathways to readers and community. We focus on developing relationships and collaborations, tabling at community events, hosting gatherings, engaging our networks, and finding creative opportunities to share our books and the work of our writers.
These challenges have required us to be resourceful, persistent, and deeply rooted in community. While limited funding and visibility can make the work difficult, they have also pushed us to imagine what publishing can look like when it is built through relationships, collective investment, and a commitment to the stories we believe must be told.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Since 2010, I have built a broad and interdisciplinary career across nonprofit, faith-based, governmental, and academic institutions. While the settings and roles have varied, each has been deeply rooted in conviction and a commitment to Black liberation. I entered this work after recognizing a troubling pattern: many institutions that claimed to value equity continued to reproduce anti-Blackness in their policies, practices, and cultures. In response, I have worked to design and lead initiatives that center Black leadership, community knowledge, and collective wisdom as essential to creating meaningful change.
As a visionary and strategist, I have led initiatives within the City of Minneapolis’ Equity and Inclusion Division, including the Capacity Building Institute, the 400 Year Commemoration, and the Northside Oral History Project. Each initiative created opportunities to uplift community knowledge, challenge dominant narratives, and address long-standing inequities in ways that positioned community members as knowledge holders and agents of change.
As a community builder, I have created spaces for Black people to connect, reflect, and thrive which include supporting affinity spaces in higher education. Beyond the academy, I founded Aya Collective Publishing in 2017, creating an evolving ecosystem of writing spaces, publishing opportunities, and community for Black women to write, reflect, and amplify our voices. What began as a desire to create opportunities for Black women writers has grown into a broader commitment to storytelling, cultural preservation, and legacy building.
As a scholar, my PhD research centers the experiences of Black women in higher education, connecting our present realities to the historical and structural conditions that have shaped our experiences. Building from this research, I have continued to create opportunities for Black women to document and reflect on our academic journeys, including through a forthcoming 2026 publication.
Across these roles, I have consistently moved between research and practice, institution-building and community-building, strategy and storytelling. My leadership is grounded in a clarity of conviction, an ability to connect vision to action, and a steadfast commitment to collective liberation. Whether working within institutions or building outside of them, I seek to create structures that make space for Black knowledge, leadership, creativity, and possibility.
What’s next?
My biggest plan is to continue to grow the work and network of supporters for Aya Collective. Growing the work means continuing to produce the research that allows Black women’s truth and wisdom to be visible at multiple levels. We will be celebrating 10 years in 2027, and have such a long way to go. We are looking forward to the opportunities to continue to build, convene, and highlight our writers.
Pricing:
- Our books: $14,99 – $34.99. Includes workbooks, anthologies, and individual texts
- Coaching: $45 – $75
- Publishing: email for quote
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.ayacollectivemn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ayacollectivepublishing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ayacollectivemn
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebonyaya/
- Other: http://www.ayamediapublishingllc.com
