Poetry Path: Danez Smith

Danez Smith is a Black, Queer, and Poz poet and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Smith is the author of three collections of poetry, including Homie (Graywolf Press, 2020) and Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), which won the 2018 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award. They are the recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and the Montalvo Arts Center. Their podcast, VS, with co-host Franny Choi, can be found on the Poetry Foundation’s website.

Danez Smith, excerpt from “Warming” from [insert] boy. Copyright © 2014 by Danez Smith. Reprinted by permission of YesYes Books.

The Poetry Path is made possible through a partnership with Battery Park City Authority, partners in design and fabrication of the Poetry Path, with additional support from our Outreach Partner, Goldman Sachs. Special thanks to the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation for funding the Poetry Path planning process, and to the Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation for supporting Poetry Path educational initiatives for youth and children.