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Danez Smith

ダネズ・スミス

Danez Smith

Profile

Gender
Unknown
Born
St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Grew up in the Selby Neighborhood, St. Paul, Minnesota

Career

Occupations
poet, writer, performer
Active Years
2010-
Affiliations
Dark Noise Collective (founding member), Split This Rock (board of directors)

Education

University of Wisconsin–Madison
Degree: B.A.
Year of Graduation: 2012
Country: United States
First Wave Urban Arts Scholar
University of Michigan
Country: United States

Awards

Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship
2014
Organization: Poetry Foundation
Result: Winner
Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry
2015
Work: [insert] Boy
Category: Gay Poetry
Organization: Lambda Literary
Result: Winner
Norma Farber First Book Award
2015
Work: [insert] Boy
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: Finalist
Kate Tufts Discovery Award
2016
Work: [insert] Boy
Organization: Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards
Result: Winner
National Endowment for the Arts (creative writing fellowship)
2017
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts
Result: Grant
National Book Award for Poetry
2017
Work: Don't Call Us Dead
Category: Poetry
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: Finalist
Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection
2018
Work: Don't Call Us Dead
Category: Best Collection
Organization: Forward Prizes for Poetry
Result: Winner
Four Quartets Prize
2018
Work: sonnet sequence "summer, somewhere"
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: Winner
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry
2020
Work: Homie
Category: Poetry
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: Finalist
NAACP Image Award for Poetry
2021
Work: Homie
Category: Poetry
Organization: NAACP
Result: Finalist
Minnesota Book Award for Poetry
2021
Work: Homie
Category: Poetry
Organization: The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
Result: Winner
Button Poetry Prize
2015
Work: black movie (chapbook)
Organization: Button Poetry
Result: Winner
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
2025
Category: Poetry
Organization: Pulitzer Prize (Columbia University)
Result: Finalist

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

[insert] Boy

2014 Poetry

A collection addressing identity, family, Blackness and queerness, using a youthful voice to explore social and emotional concerns.

identityfamilyracequeerness

Don't Call Us Dead

2017 Poetry

A poetry collection exploring death, life, violence, illness (including HIV), and hope through contemporary Black and queer experiences; widely acclaimed and award-recognized.

deathviolenceillnesshopeBlack experiencequeerness

Homie

2020 Poetry

A collection themed around friendship, community, desire, and loneliness, probing intimacy through personal and experimental poetics.

friendshipcommunityintimacyloneliness

Bluff

2024 Poetry

The most recent collection experimenting with form and voice to interrogate self, otherness, and public life.

selfothernesspublic lifelinguistic experimentation

Bibliography

  • hands on ya knees (chapbook, 2013)
  • black movie (chapbook, 2015)
  • [insert] Boy (YesYes Books, 2014)
  • Don't Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017)
  • Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020)
  • Bluff (Graywolf Press, 2024)
  • Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes (editor, 2024)
  • Contributor: Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (2018)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
spoken-word / slam-influenced colloquial and forceful deliverylyrical fragments combined with political directnessexperimental forms mixing narrative fragments
Recurring Motifs
familydeath and lossBlacknessqueer relationshipsillness (HIV) and the body

Health

  • HIV-positive
    Has influenced thematic concerns and public statements; illness and embodiment recur in their poetry.

Legacy

Danez Smith is a significant voice in contemporary American poetry, acclaimed both in spoken-word/slam circuits and the literary establishment. Their frank, urgent poems about race, queerness, and illness have won multiple awards and influenced a younger generation of poets.

In Popular Culture

  • Television performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (shared appearance with Macklemore)
  • Co-host of the poetry podcast VS, bringing poetic conversation to broader audiences

Quotes

  • “remarkable for its nervy, surprising, morally urgent poems.”
    Source: Chase Twitchell (judge's comment) (2015)

Trivia

  • Uses they/them pronouns (genderqueer / non-binary).
  • Became the youngest winner of the Forward Prize at age 29.
  • Co-hosts the VS podcast from the Poetry Foundation.
  • Official website: www.danezsmithpoet.com