Danez Smith

Danez Smith is a Black, queer, non-binary, HIV-positive writer and performer from St. Paul, MN.[1][2] They are the author of the poetry collections [insert] Boy and Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, both of which have received multiple awards.[3]

Danez Smith
BornSt. Paul, Minnesota
GenrePoetry
Literary movementDark Noise Collective
Website
www.danezsmithpoet.com

Personal life

Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota[4] and attended Central High School.[5] They grew up with their mother and grandparents in the Selby Neighborhood.[6] Their family is from Mississippi and Georgia.[7] Smith has said that they struggled with reading up until the third grade.[6] A teacher told them that being able to read would allow them to read video-game magazines, which inspired Danez.[6] Smith was a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating with a BA in 2012.[8][9] Smith is genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns.[10]

Career

Smith is a founding member of Dark Noise Collective[11] with Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, and Jamila Woods.[12]

With Jamila Woods, Smith joined Macklemore for a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in February, 2016.[13] Their writing has been published in Poetry (magazine) and Ploughshares.[4] On March 30, 2017, Smith was the inaugural guest of the Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series at the University of Central Oklahoma.[14]

Smith is the author of three books. [insert] Boy won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,[15] with jurist Chase Twitchell describing Smith's poetry as "remarkable for its nervy, surprising, morally urgent poems."[16] [insert] Boy was also selected as a Boston Globe Best Poetry Book in 2014.[17] Smith's second book, Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for poetry.[18] Smith is also the author of two chapbooks, hands on your knees (2013, Penmanship Books) and black movie (2015, Button Poetry), winner of the Button Poetry Prize.

Smith has twice been a finalist in Individual World Poetry Slam.[16] They were a finalist in 2011[19] and placed second in 2014.[20]

With Franny Choi, Smith is co-host of the poetry podcast VS from the Poetry Foundation.[21]

Smith won a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts grant.[22]

In 2018, Smith's sonnet sequence "summer, somewhere" received the inaugural Four Quartets Prize from the Poetry Society of America.[23] At age 29, Smith also became the youngest recipient of the £10,000 Forward Prize for best poetry collection, as Don't Call Us Dead beat out works by U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith and former Forward winner Vahni Capildeo.[10] Smith serves on the board of directors for the D.C.-based poetry non-profit Split This Rock.[24]

Works

Poems

Chapbooks
  • hands on your knees (2013, Penmanship Books)
  • black movie (2015, Button Poetry)

Books
  • [insert] Boy (2014) ISBN 978-1936919284
  • Don't Call Us Dead (2017) ISBN 978-1555977856
  • Homie (2020) ISBN 978-1644450109

In Anthology
  • Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press, 2018) ISBN 978-0820353159

Controversies

Ricegate

At 9:00 AM on November 19, 2019, Twitter user Jon Becker (@jonbecker_) tweeted the words "Please quote tweet this with your most controversial food opinion, I love controversial food opinions."[33] While seemingly harmless, this tweet would soon go on to be the basis of a fiery Twitter controversy. Five days later, at 10:03 AM on the morning of November 24, 2019, Smith (@Danez_Smif) quoted Becker in a response, saying: "No rice has ever been good. Not jollof, not fried, not white, brown, wild, yellow, red, not with a little saffron or with a lil garlic. Rice is just there cause the meat and veggies won't stretch. Rice is just here to fix wet phones."[34] Smith faced backlash from the horrified general public, including several fellow poets. Poet Franny Choi, with whom Smith co-hosts poetry podcast VS,[21] replied with a tweet featuring a screenshot reporting the tweet for being abusive or harmful.

Three days later, on November 27, 2019, Smith tweeted: "Please add #ricegate to the controversy section of my Wikipedia page."[35]

Awards

References
  1. "Bio". Danez Smith. Poet. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  2. Stewart, Chris. "Nonbinary Poet Danez Smith Is Winning Awards — And Our Hearts". them. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  3. "Danez Smith". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  4. "Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2017-09-19.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. "St. Paul poet Danez Smith shines in the national spotlight". Minnesota Public Radio. 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  6. "Impassioned Twin Cities poet Danez Smith is a troubadour for our turbulent times". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  7. "The Conversation: Cortney Lamar Charleston and Danez Smith". The Rumpus. 2016-03-26. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  8. "Bio". Danez Smith. Poet. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  9. "Danez Smith: A Poet Finding Freedom through Language". Wisconsin Alumni Association. 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  10. Flood, Alison (18 September 2018). "Danez Smith becomes youngest winner of Forward poetry prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  11. "Dark Noise Collective". Dark Noise Collective. Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  12. "Dark Noise: Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods". Poetry Foundation. 2017-04-07. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  13. "See Macklemore Perform Jazzy 'White Privilege' on 'Colbert'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  14. "Alexander Lawrence Posey Speaker Series". University of Central Oklahoma. New Plains Student Publishing, University of Central Oklahoma. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  15. "[REVIEW] [insert] boy, by Danez Smith - [PANK]". [PANK]. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  16. "Poet Ross Gay wins Claremont's $100,000 Tufts prize". San Diego Union Tribune. Associated Press. March 2, 2016. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  17. Share, Don (December 10, 2014). "Best poetry books of 2014 - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  18. "2017 National Book Award finalists revealed". CBS News. October 4, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  19. Calello, Monique. "Slam poet Danez Smith to perform at Bridgewater". The News Leader. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  20. Segal, Corinne (November 16, 2015). "Poet Danez Smith issues a wake-up call to white America". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  21. "Introducing VS Podcast: Where Poets Confront the Ideas That Move Them by Franny Choi, Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2017-09-19.CS1 maint: others (link)
  22. Hertzel, Laurie (December 13, 2016). "Four Minnesota writers win NEA grants". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  23. Buccieri, Laura (April 16, 2018). "Danez Smith Wins the $20,000 Four Quartets Prize, Calls Their Mother". Literary Hub.
  24. "Board of Directors | About Us | Split This Rock". splitthisrock.org. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  25. "poem where I be & you just might by Danez Smith". Poetry Society of America.
  26. "Dinosaurs in the Hood by Danez Smith". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Magazine. 2017-09-19. Retrieved 2017-09-19.CS1 maint: others (link)
  27. Smith (2015-09-03). "the bullet was a girl". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 2019-01-04.
  28. "Watch This Queer Black Poet Dismantle Racist Myth That 'All Lives Matter' (Video)". 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  29. "Poem: "You're Dead, America" By Danez Smith". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  30. Smith (2017-02-01). "C.R.E.A.M." Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  31. "Don't Try Us". The FADER. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  32. Smith, Danez (2017-06-09). "From 'summer, somewhere'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
  33. Becker, Jon [@jonbecker_] (2019-11-19). "Please quote tweet this with your most controversial food opinion, I love controversial food opinions" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-12-17 – via Twitter.
  34. @Danez_Smif (2019-11-24). "No rice has ever been good. Not jollof, not fried, not white, brown, wild, yellow, red, not with a little saffron or with a lil garlic. Rice is just there cause the meat and veggies won't stretch. Rice is just here to fix wet phones. twitter.com/jonbecker_/status/1196805486907052033 …" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-12-17 – via Twitter.
  35. Riperton, Nezzie [@Danez_Smif] (2019-11-27). "Never gonna outlive that tweet. Please add #ricegate to the controversy section of my Wikipedia page. twitter.com/JulianThePoet/status/1199802356889767936 …" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-12-17 – via Twitter.
  36. Foundation, Poetry (2020-03-10). "2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Winners Announced". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  37. "Award Winners". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  38. Poetry Foundation. "2016 Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards Go to Ross Gay and Danez Smith". Harriet: The Blog. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  39. "Winners & Finalists - Tufts Poetry Awards". cgu.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  40. "NEA Announces Creative Writing Fellowships | Poets & Writers". Poets & Writers. December 13, 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  41. "Meet National Book Award Finalist Danez Smith". Literary Hub. 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
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