Danez Smith

Danez Smith
Born	St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A.) University of Michigan
Genre	Poetry
Literary movement	Dark Noise Collective
Notable works	[insert] Boy Don't Call Us Dead: Poems Homie
Notable awards	Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry Kate Tufts Discovery Award Forward Prize
Website
www.danezsmithpoet.com

Danez Smith is an American poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota.[1][2] 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.[3] Their most recent poetry collection Bluff was published in 2024.[4]

Early life and education

Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,[5] and attended Saint Paul Central High School.[6] They grew up with their mother and grandparents in the Selby Neighborhood.[7] Their family is from Mississippi and Georgia.[8]

Smith has said that they struggled with reading up until the third grade.[7] A teacher told them that being able to read would allow them to read video-game magazines, which inspired Smith.[7]

Smith was a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with a BA in 2012.[9][10]

Career

Smith is a founding member of Dark Noise Collective[11] with Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, and Jamila Woods.[12]

With Jamila Woods, Smith joined Macklemore for a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in February, 2016.[13] Their writing has been published in Poetry (magazine) and Ploughshares.[5] On March 30, 2017, Smith was the inaugural guest of the Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series at the University of Central Oklahoma.[14]

Smith is the author of three books. [insert] Boy won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,[15] with jurist Chase Twitchell describing Smith's poetry as "remarkable for its nervy, surprising, morally urgent poems."[16] [insert] Boy was also selected as a Boston Globe Best Poetry Book in 2014.[17] Smith's second book, Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for poetry.[18] 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.[4] 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.[16] They were a finalist in 2011[19] and placed second in 2014.[20]

With Franny Choi, Smith is co-host of the poetry podcast VS from the Poetry Foundation.[21]

Smith won a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts grant.[22]

In 2018, Smith's sonnet sequence "summer, somewhere" received the inaugural Four Quartets Prize from the Poetry Society of America.[23] 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.[24] Smith serves on the board of directors for the D.C.-based poetry non-profit Split This Rock.[25]

In 2020, Smith published a third poetry collection called Homie.[26][27] Homie won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry.[28]

Personal life

Smith is genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns.[24]

Works

Poems

• "poem where I be & you just might" (Poetry Society of America)[29]
• "Dinosaurs in the Hood" (Poetry, December 2014)[30]
• "the bullet was a girl" (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, September 3, 2015)[31]
• "Principles" (video from Brave New Voices Festival, July 2016)[32]
• "You're Dead, America" (BuzzFeed, November 9, 2016)[33]
• "C.R.E.A.M." (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, February 1, 2017)[34]
• "Don't Try Us" (Fader, May 1, 2017)[35]
• Selection from "summer, somewhere" (The New York Times, June 9, 2017)[36]

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[37]
• 2015 – Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry[15]
• 2015—Norma Farber First Book Award, Finalist[38]
• 2016 – Kate Tufts Discovery Award[39][40]
• 2017 – NEA fellowship for creative writing[41]
• 2017 – National Book Award for Poetry, Finalist[42]
• 2018 – Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection[24]
• 2018 – Four Quartets Prize[43]
• 2021 – Minnesota Book Award for Poetry[44]

References

1. "Bio". Danez Smith. Poet. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
2. Stewart, Chris (April 16, 2018). "Nonbinary Poet Danez Smith Is Winning Awards — And Our Hearts". them. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
3. "Danez Smith". National Book Foundation. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
4. "Homie". Graywolf Press. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
5. "Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
6. "St. Paul poet Danez Smith shines in the national spotlight". Minnesota Public Radio. September 14, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
7. Hertzel, Laurie (September 15, 2017). "Impassioned Twin Cities poet Danez Smith is a troubadour for our turbulent times". Star Tribune. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
8. "The Conversation: Cortney Lamar Charleston and Danez Smith". The Rumpus. March 26, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
9. "Bio". Danez Smith. Poet. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
10. Allen, John (November 30, 2017). "Danez Smith: A Poet Finding Freedom through Language". Wisconsin Alumni Association. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
11. "Dark Noise Collective". Dark Noise Collective. Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
12. "Dark Noise: Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods". Poetry Foundation. April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
13. Grow, Kory (February 9, 2016). "See Macklemore Perform Jazzy 'White Privilege' on 'Colbert'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
14. "Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series". University of Central Oklahoma. New Plains Student Publishing, University of Central Oklahoma. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
15. LaBerge, Peter (September 22, 2015). "[REVIEW] [insert] boy, by Danez Smith - [PANK]". [PANK]. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
16. "Poet Ross Gay wins Claremont's $100,000 Tufts prize". San Diego Union Tribune. Associated Press. March 2, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
17. Share, Don (December 10, 2014). "Best poetry books of 2014 - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
18. "2017 National Book Award finalists revealed". CBS News. October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
19. Calello, Monique (October 10, 2016). "Slam poet Danez Smith to perform at Bridgewater". The News Leader. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
20. Segal, Corinne (November 16, 2015). "Poet Danez Smith issues a wake-up call to white America". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
21. "Introducing VS Podcast: Where Poets Confront the Ideas That Move Them by Franny Choi, Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
22. Hertzel, Laurie (December 13, 2016). "Four Minnesota writers win NEA grants". Star Tribune. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
23. Buccieri, Laura (April 16, 2018). "Danez Smith Wins the $20,000 Four Quartets Prize, Calls Their Mother". Literary Hub.
24. Flood, Alison (September 18, 2018). "Danez Smith becomes youngest winner of Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
25. "Board of Directors | About Us | Split This Rock". splitthisrock.org. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
26. Sehgal, Parul (January 7, 2020). "'Homie,' a Book of Poems That Produces Shocking New Vibrations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
27. Wallin, Blake (January 26, 2020). "Poetry by Its Own Name: a review of Homie by Danez Smith". Maudlin House. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
28. "Minnesota Book Awards Winners & Finalists". The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. September 4, 2017.
29. "poem where I be & you just might by Danez Smith". Poetry Society of America.
30. "Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Magazine. September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
31. Smith (September 3, 2015). "the bullet was a girl". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
32. "Watch This Queer Black Poet Dismantle Racist Myth That 'All Lives Matter' (Video)". July 21, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
33. "Poem: "You're Dead, America" By Danez Smith". BuzzFeed. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
34. Smith (February 1, 2017). "C.R.E.A.M." Academy of American Poets. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
35. Smith, Danez. "Don't Try Us". The FADER. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
36. Smith, Danez (June 9, 2017). "From 'summer, somewhere'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
37. "2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Winners Announced". Poetry Foundation. March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
38. "Award Winners". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
39. Poetry Foundation. "2016 Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards Go to Ross Gay and Danez Smith". Harriet: The Blog. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
40. "Winners & Finalists - Tufts Poetry Awards". cgu.edu. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
41. "NEA Announces Creative Writing Fellowships | Poets & Writers". Poets & Writers. December 13, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
42. Temple, Emily (November 7, 2017). "Meet National Book Award Finalist Danez Smith". Literary Hub. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
43. "Danez Smith Wins Inaugural Four Quartets Prize". Poets & Writers. April 13, 2018.
44. "Minnesota Book Awards Winners & Finalists". The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. September 4, 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Danez Smith on Poetryfoundation.org