Derrick Austin

Read poems by this poet

Derrick Austin was born in Homestead, Florida. He received his BA from the University of Tampa and, in 2014, an MFA from the University of Michigan. 

Austin is the author of This Elegance (BOA Editions, 2026); Tenderness (BOA Editions, 2021), winner of the 2021 Isabella Gardener Award and a Lambda Literary Award; Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016), selected by Mary Szybist for the 2015 A. Poulin Jr. Prize and a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and a Lambda Literary Award. 

A Cave Canem Fellow, Austin is the recipient of fellowships from The Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing and Stanford University. He lives in New York City.