Zuggie Tate (she/her) is a poet and spoken word artist from Cleveland, Ohio, with a BA in Sociology from Case Western Reserve University. Rooted in her intersectional identity as a Black Trans woman, a larger-bodied woman, a person born into poverty, and someone living with invisible disabilities, her work centers the lives, voices, and resilience of Black Trans women while inviting audiences toward empathy, re-education, and acceptance.Her writing has appeared in Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest, Wasteland Review, Exposed Bone, Shade Literary Arts, and Verum Literary Press. She is the recipient of the Margie's Hope 2023 Living Heritage Award for her advocacy and poetry addressing Trans issues. Zuggie has been a fellow with Twelve Literary Arts, Assembly for the Arts, and The Watering Hole, and has participated in workshops hosted by Torch Literary Arts, Flash in the Pan!, and Deathrattle Literary. In 2023, she was voted Cleveland Scene's No. 2 Poet and has performed at venues including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Heights Arts. She was also invited to serve as a panelist at Literary Cleveland's 2024 Inkubator Conference. In 2025, she received the Cleveland Arts Prize Verge Fellowship, Literary Cleveland's Amplify Fellowship, and was named a Lambda Literary Fellow.In a world that too often attempts to erase Black Trans women, Zuggie's work stands as both testimony and celebration-honoring survival, transforming pain into beauty, and imagining pathways toward liberation for future generations.