Danez Smith is a Black, Queer, Poz writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead, winner of the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award and a finalist for the National Book Award, and [insert] boy, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. Smith's work has been featured widely including on Buzzfeed, the New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Smith is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and is the co-host of VS with Franny Choi, a podcast sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Postloudness. Smith’s third collection, Homie, will be published in Spring 2020.