Danez Smith (born in St. Paul, Minnesota) is a Black, queer, poz poet whose work addresses race, illness, grief, and survival with electric formal energy and emotional force. They received their MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and have received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Forward Prize for Best Collection. Their debut [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014) was followed by Don't Call Us Dead (Graywolf, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Award, and Homie (Graywolf, 2020). They are a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective, a group of queer and trans poets of color, and have received the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a fellowship from the Whiting Foundation.