Danez Smith

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| name = Danez Smith

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| image = Danez Smith at LA Times Festival of Books 2025 (cropped).jpg

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| caption = Smith at the 2025 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

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| birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison {{small|(B.A.)}}
University of Michigan

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| genre = Poetry

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| movement = Dark Noise Collective

| notableworks = [insert] Boy
Don't Call Us Dead: Poems
Homie

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| awards = Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry
Kate Tufts Discovery Award
Forward Prize

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| website = {{URL|https://www.danezsmithpoet.com/}}

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Danez Smith is an American poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota.{{Cite web|url=http://www.danezsmithpoet.com/bio-encore/|title=Bio|website=Danez Smith. Poet.|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.them.us/story/danez-smith-is-winning-awards-and-our-hearts|title=Nonbinary Poet Danez Smith Is Winning Awards — And Our Hearts|last=Stewart|first=Chris|website=them.|date=16 April 2018|language=en|access-date=2020-03-03}} They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections [insert] Boy and Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, both of which have received multiple awards, and Homie/My Nig.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/danez-smith/|title=Danez Smith|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-17}} Their most recent poetry collection Bluff was published in 2024.

Early life and education

Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/danez-smith|title=Danez Smith|date=2017-09-19|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en-us|others=Poetry Foundation|access-date=2017-09-19}} and attended Saint Paul Central High School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/09/14/books-danez-smith|title=St. Paul poet Danez Smith shines in the national spotlight|date=2017-09-14|website=Minnesota Public Radio|language=en-us|access-date=2017-11-28}} They grew up with their mother and grandparents in the Selby Neighborhood.{{Cite web|title=Impassioned Twin Cities poet Danez Smith is a troubadour for our turbulent times|url=https://www.startribune.com/impassioned-twin-cities-poet-danez-smith-is-a-troubadour-for-our-turbulent-times/444227783/|first=Laurie|last= Hertzel|date=September 15, 2017|access-date=2020-10-25|website=Star Tribune}} Their family is from Mississippi and Georgia.{{Cite news|url=http://therumpus.net/2016/03/the-conversation-cortney-lamar-charleston-and-danez-smith/|title=The Conversation: Cortney Lamar Charleston and Danez Smith|date=2016-03-26|work=The Rumpus|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en-US}}

Smith has said that they struggled with reading up until the third grade. A teacher told them that being able to read would allow them to read video-game magazines, which inspired Smith.

Smith was a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with a BA in 2012.{{Cite web|url=http://www.danezsmithpoet.com/bio-encore/|title=Bio|website=Danez Smith. Poet.|language=en-US|access-date=2018-03-14}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.uwalumni.com/news/danez-smith-a-poet-finding-freedom-through-language/|title=Danez Smith: A Poet Finding Freedom through Language|date=2017-11-30|work=Wisconsin Alumni Association|first=John|last= Allen|access-date=2018-09-20|language=en-US}}

Career

Smith is a founding member of Dark Noise Collective{{Cite web|url=http://www.darknoisetour.com/#!about-us/cicd|title=Dark Noise Collective|website=Dark Noise Collective|access-date=2017-04-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408082503/http://www.darknoisetour.com/#!about-us/cicd|archive-date=2017-04-08|url-status=dead}} with Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, and Jamila Woods.{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/programs/events/detail/74309|title=Dark Noise: Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods|date=2017-04-07|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en-us|access-date=2017-04-07}}

With Jamila Woods, Smith joined Macklemore for a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in February, 2016.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/see-macklemore-give-mic-to-white-privilege-black-poets-on-colbert-20160209|title=See Macklemore Perform Jazzy 'White Privilege' on 'Colbert'|first=Kory |last=Grow|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=February 9, 2016|access-date=2017-04-07|archive-date=2017-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312012100/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/see-macklemore-give-mic-to-white-privilege-black-poets-on-colbert-20160209|url-status=dead}} Their writing has been published in Poetry (magazine) and Ploughshares. On March 30, 2017, Smith was the inaugural guest of the Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series at the University of Central Oklahoma.{{cite web|title=Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series|url=http://sites.uco.edu/la/english/newplainsreview/poseyseries.asp|website=University of Central Oklahoma|publisher=New Plains Student Publishing, University of Central Oklahoma|accessdate=1 June 2017}}

Smith is the author of three books. [insert] Boy won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, with jurist Chase Twitchell describing Smith's poetry as "remarkable for its nervy, surprising, morally urgent poems." [insert] Boy was also selected as a Boston Globe Best Poetry Book in 2014.{{cite web|last=Share|first=Don|date=December 10, 2014|title=Best poetry books of 2014 - The Boston Globe|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/12/06/best-poetry-books/u4RN6jY3LfSAnwfsLmvBwM/story.html|access-date=2020-10-25|website=BostonGlobe.com|language=en-US}} Smith's second book, Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for poetry.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2017-national-book-award-finalists/|title=2017 National Book Award finalists revealed|date=October 4, 2017|work=CBS News|access-date=2017-10-04|language=en}} Their third book, Homie, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Poetry.{{Cite web|title=Homie|url=https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/homie|access-date=2021-07-21|website=Graywolf Press|language=en}} Smith is also the author of two chapbooks, hands on ya knees (2013, Penmanship Books) and black movie (2015, Button Poetry), winner of the Button Poetry Prize.

Smith has twice been a finalist in Individual World Poetry Slam.{{Cite news|url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-poet-ross-gay-wins-claremonts-100000-tufts-prize-2016mar02-story.html|title=Poet Ross Gay wins Claremont's $100,000 Tufts prize|agency=Associated Press|date=March 2, 2016|work=San Diego Union Tribune|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en-US}} They were a finalist in 2011{{Cite web|last=Calello|first=Monique|title=Slam poet Danez Smith to perform at Bridgewater|url=https://www.newsleader.com/story/entertainment/2016/10/10/slam-poet-danez-smith-perform-bridgewater-college/91853934/|date=October 10, 2016|access-date=2020-10-25|website=The News Leader|language=en-US}} and placed second in 2014.{{cite news|last1=Segal|first1=Corinne|title=Poet Danez Smith issues a wake-up call to white America|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/poetry/poet-danez-smith-issues-a-wake-up-call-to-white-america/|access-date=13 June 2017|work=PBS NewsHour|date=November 16, 2015}}

With Franny Choi, Smith is co-host of the poetry podcast VS from the Poetry Foundation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2017/07/introducing-vs-podcast-where-poets-confront-the-ideas-that-move-them|title=Introducing VS Podcast: Where Poets Confront the Ideas That Move Them by Franny Choi, Danez Smith|date=2017-09-19|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en-us|others=Poetry Foundation|access-date=2017-09-19}}

Smith won a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts grant.{{Cite news|url=http://www.startribune.com/four-minnesota-writers-win-nea-grants/406385766/|title=Four Minnesota writers win NEA grants|last=Hertzel|first=Laurie|date=December 13, 2016|work=Star Tribune|access-date=2017-09-19}}

In 2018, Smith's sonnet sequence "summer, somewhere" received the inaugural Four Quartets Prize from the Poetry Society of America.{{Cite news|url=https://lithub.com/danez-smith-wins-the-20000-four-quartets-prize-calls-their-mother/ |title=Danez Smith Wins the $20,000 Four Quartets Prize, Calls Their Mother |last=Buccieri |first=Laura |date=April 16, 2018 |website=Literary Hub}} At the age of 29, Smith also became the youngest recipient of the £10,000 Forward Prize for best poetry collection, as Don't Call Us Dead beat out works by U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith and former Forward Prize-winner Vahni Capildeo. Smith serves on the board of directors for the D.C.-based poetry non-profit Split This Rock.{{Cite web|url=https://www.splitthisrock.org/about-us/board-of-directors/|title=Board of Directors {{!}} About Us {{!}} Split This Rock|website=splitthisrock.org|access-date=2020-03-10}}

In 2020, Smith published a third poetry collection called Homie.{{Cite news|last=Sehgal|first=Parul|date=2020-01-07|title='Homie,' a Book of Poems That Produces Shocking New Vibrations|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/books/review-homie-danez-smith.html|access-date=2021-03-29|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Wallin|first=Blake|date=2020-01-26|title=Poetry by Its Own Name: a review of Homie by Danez Smith|url=https://maudlinhouse.net/poetry-by-its-own-name-a-review-of-homie-by-danez-smith/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=Maudlin House|language=en-US}} Homie won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry.{{cite web |title=Minnesota Book Awards Winners & Finalists |url=https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/ |website=The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library|date=September 4, 2017 }}

Personal life

Smith is genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns.

Works

=Poems=

"poem where I be & you just might" (Poetry Society of America){{Cite web|url=https://poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/crossroads/own_words/Danez_Smith|title=poem where I be & you just might by Danez Smith|website=Poetry Society of America}}
"Dinosaurs in the Hood" (Poetry, December 2014){{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/57585|title=Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith|date=2017-09-19|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en-us|others=Poetry Magazine|access-date=2017-09-19}}
"the bullet was a girl" (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, September 3, 2015){{Cite web|url=https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/bullet-was-girl|title=the bullet was a girl|last=Smith|date=2015-09-03|website=Academy of American Poets|language=en|access-date=2019-01-04}}
"Principles" (video from Brave New Voices Festival, July 2016){{Cite news|url=http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2016/7/21/watch-queer-black-poet-dismantle-racist-myth-all-lives-matter-video|title=Watch This Queer Black Poet Dismantle Racist Myth That 'All Lives Matter' (Video)|date=2016-07-21|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en}}
"You're Dead, America" (BuzzFeed, November 9, 2016){{Cite news|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/danezsmith/poem-youre-dead-america-by-danez-smith|title=Poem: "You're Dead, America" By Danez Smith|work=BuzzFeed|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en}}
"C.R.E.A.M." (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, February 1, 2017){{Cite web|url=https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/cream|title=C.R.E.A.M.|last=Smith|date=2017-02-01|website=Academy of American Poets|language=en|access-date=2017-09-19}}
"Don't Try Us" (Fader, May 1, 2017){{Cite news|url=http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/01/dont-try-us-diaspora-poem|title=Don't Try Us|first=Danez|last= Smith|work=The FADER|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en}}
Selection from "summer, somewhere" (The New York Times, June 9, 2017){{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/magazine/from-summer-somewhere.html|title=From 'summer, somewhere'|last=Smith|first=Danez|date=2017-06-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-09-19|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

=Chapbooks=

hands on ya knees (2013, Penmanship Books)
black movie (2015, Button Poetry), ISBN 978-1-943735-00-6

=Books=

[insert] boy, YesYes Books (2014), {{ISBN|978-1936919284}}
Don't Call Us Dead, Graywolf Press (2017), {{ISBN|978-1555977856}}
Homie, Graywolf Press (2020), {{ISBN|978-1644450109}}
Bluff, Graywolf Press (2024), ISBN 978-1-64445-298-1

=In Anthology=

Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press, 2018) {{ISBN|978-0820353159}}

Awards

2014 – Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/press/71789/2014-ruth-lilly-and-dorothy-sargent-rosenberg-poetry-fellowship-winners-announced|title=2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Winners Announced|date=2020-03-10|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}
2015 – Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry{{Cite web|url=http://pankmagazine.com/2015/09/22/review-insert-boy-by-danez-smith/|title=[REVIEW] [insert] boy, by Danez Smith - [PANK]|first=Peter|last= LaBerge|date=2015-09-22|website=[PANK]|access-date=2017-04-07}}
2015—Norma Farber First Book Award, Finalist{{Cite web|title=Award Winners|url=https://poetrysociety.org/award-winners/year/2015|access-date=2020-10-25|website=Poetry Society of America|language=en}}
2016 – Kate Tufts Discovery Award{{Cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2016/03/2016-kingsley-and-kate-tufts-poetry-awards-go-to-ross-gay-and-danez-smith/|title=2016 Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards Go to Ross Gay and Danez Smith|author=Poetry Foundation|website=Harriet: The Blog|access-date=2017-04-07}}{{Cite web|url=http://cgu.edu/pages/8613.asp|title=Winners & Finalists - Tufts Poetry Awards|website=cgu.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-07}}
2017 – NEA fellowship for creative writing{{cite news|title=NEA Announces Creative Writing Fellowships {{!}} Poets & Writers|url=https://www.pw.org/content/nea_announces_creative_writing_fellowships_0|accessdate=7 April 2017|work=Poets & Writers|date=December 13, 2016|language=en}}
2017 – National Book Award for Poetry, Finalist{{Cite web|url=https://lithub.com/meet-national-book-award-finalist-danez-smith/|title=Meet National Book Award Finalist Danez Smith|first=Emily|last=Temple|date=2017-11-07|website=Literary Hub|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-10}}
2018 – Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection{{cite news |last1=Flood |first1=Alison |title=Danez Smith becomes youngest winner of Forward poetry prize |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/18/danez-smith-forward-poetry-collection-prize-dont-call-us-dead |accessdate=20 September 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=18 September 2018}}
2018 – Four Quartets Prize{{cite web |title=Danez Smith Wins Inaugural Four Quartets Prize |url=https://www.pw.org/content/danez_smith_wins_inaugural_four_quartets_prize |website=Poets & Writers |language=en |date=13 April 2018}}
2021 – Minnesota Book Award for Poetry{{cite web |title=Minnesota Book Awards Winners & Finalists |url=https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/ |website=The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library |date=September 4, 2017 |language=en}}