Aziza Barnes

Aziza Barnes was born in Los Angeles and received a BFA from New York University and an MFA at the University of Mississippi. 

Barnes is the author of i be but i ain’t (YesYes Books, 2016), winner of the 2015 Pamet River Prize. Their first play, BLKS, premiered at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in 2017 then at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space in New York in 2019.

Barnes was the recipient of fellowships from Callaloo and Poets House and served as both a poetry and nonfiction editor of Kinfolk Quarterly. They lived in Oxford, Mississippi, until their passing in December 2024.