Shel Senai (they/them) is a prose writer and editor based outside of Boston.
A 2020 fiction graduate from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, Shel currently serves as the Assistant Fiction Editor for Raleigh Review. Their stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Keep Things, LEON Literary Review, Citron Review and Reservoir. Shel is at work on a short story collection as well as a speculative epic in three parts.
Artist Fellowship Award
Mass Cultural Council
FY 22
Shel’s work received critical financial support from the Mass Cultural Council in 2022.
Aspen Words
Sci-fi/Fantasy Workshop
June 2022
Shel received a full scholarship to the inaugural sci-fi/fantasy workshop at Aspen Words with writer Fonda Lee.
Emerging Artist Award
St. Botolph Club Foundation
2018
Shel was one of the Literature Award Recipients for the St. Botolph Club Foundation’s 2018 Emerging Artist Awards.
Raleigh Review
Assistant Fiction Editor
2016 – Present
Shel has been on the editorial staff of Raleigh Review since 2016 and currently serves as Assistant Fiction Editor. In 2019 and 2021, Raleigh Review was selected as a CLMP Firecracker Finalist for General Magazine Excellence alongside American Short Fiction, New England Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Kenyon Review, ZYZZYVA and others.
Etc.
Shel’s work is concerned with portraying the profound complexity of the human experience by bringing to the surface those elements of the subconscious—deeply-seated desires, beliefs, fears and experiences—that inform who we are and how we behave. As a queer, nonbinary human, their work is also often exploring questions of gender, sexuality and identity.
When not writing, Shel runs flypaper PR, a public relations consultancy, and tries to set a good example for their two young children. A basic introvert, they enjoy wheel throwing, cooking, baking, reading, journaling, meditating, yoga, and dancing alone in their kitchen. They are actively practicing detachment from form and “Doing” and moving instead toward simply Being.