Janae Shaheed
born writer | trained researcher | intentional storyteller
I write essays and stories about memory, identity, belonging, and the intimate spaces where individual and collective stories meet. After spending a decade studying development through research, I'm returning to my first love: creative writing.
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I also provide writing and editing services. Utilizing the skills I honed during my time as a researcher, through listening, curiosity, and intention, I help others who care deeply find the words to share what’s in their soul.
I have been a writer who lost her voice. During my time in academia, so focused on achieving those pretty little letters after my name, I lost sight of my audience which distilled my writing voice into something that was too mechanical to feel the soul behind my passion for the work.
I take this work seriously your voice is too precious a thing to ever lose. I know so many--too many brilliant researchers, academics, and visionaries who, in pushing the important work forward, are losing the bite in their words that help spark change.
I want to be part of the solution by offering writing, editing, and strategy support that listens to what you want to say, how you want to say it, and who you want to be impacted by the story in your heart.
From idea to first draft, polished piece to target audience, all writing is an act of translation.
I make sure your soul doesn't get lost in the process.
“Janae has a rare ability to blend soul with language.
She listens deeply to the person she is working with, understands their voice and their energy, and translates that understanding into something that feels genuinely theirs. The work she creates is not simply well written. It captures what needs to be said, who needs to hear it, and how it needs to be felt.
I would wholeheartedly recommend working with Janae to anyone looking for a writer who can bring both craft and humanity to the page. She has a beautiful gift, and I feel incredibly fortunate that Birds Uncaged gave me a front row seat to watching her begin to claim it.”
— Nikkia Reveillac, Founder, Birds Uncaged