United States

Danez Smith is a black, queer, non-binary, HIV-positive writer and performer from St. Paul, MN. Smith is a founding member of Dark Noise Collective with Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, and Jamila Woods. With Franny Choi, Smith is co-host of the poetry podcast VS from the Poetry Foundation. Smith is the author of 3 books: '[insert] Boy' won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, with jurist Chase Twitchell describing Smith's poetry as "remarkable for its nervy, surprising, morally urgent poems." Smith's second book, 'Don't Call Us Dead: Poems', was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for poetry. Smith is also the author of two chapbooks, 'hands on your knees' (2013) and 'black movie' (2015), winner of the Button Poetry Prize. Smith has twice been a finalist in Individual World Poetry Slam, placing second in 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danez_Smith