Meres-Sia Gabriel is the bestselling author of I Twirl in the Smoke and the writer and producer of the one-woman show I Was There Too! Poet, performer, playwright, and educator, her work deals with helping marginalized groups center themselves through artistic expression and personal narrative.

She has collaborated as a poet and performer with de Young Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum, and Oakland Museum of California where her poetry is featured in the permanent installation “Black Power in California.” In 2023, Meres-Sia received awards from California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Center for Cultural Power, and BE-IMAGINATIVE to develop a series of interactive community events honoring the perspectives of children in the Black Panther Party. These events further acted as catalysts for intergenerational conversations around self-care in activism and caring for children in revolutionary movements.

In addition to her artist practice, Meres-Sia is a former high school teacher of 20 years, a college French instructor,  a teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project at UC Berkeley, and the founder of her own creative writing program, Life-Changing Writing.  When she is not writing and performing, she is dreaming, and enjoying being the mother of two adult children.