Danez Smith

Read poems by this poet

Danez Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and received an MFA from the University of Michigan.

Smith is the author of Bluff (Graywolf Press, 2024); Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020); Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), which was short-listed for the National Book Award; and [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.

The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Smith is also the winner of a Pushcart Prize. They co-host the podcast VS alongside Franny Choi. Smith served as the Guest Editor of Poem-a-Day in August 2024 and lives in Minneapolis.