Two Ends of a Seesaw
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Danez Smith |
Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Their 2nd collection, Don't Call Us Dead, will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. They are also the author of two chapbooks, hands on ya knees & black movie, winner of the Button Poetry Prize. Their work has published & featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, & Ploughshares. They are a 2014 Ruth Lilly - Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. Danez is a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing 2nd in 2014. They edit for The Offing & is a founding member of 2 collectives, Dark Noise and Sad Boy Supper Club. Danez lives in the midwest most of the time.
Danez was featured in American Academy of Poet's Emerging Writers Series by National Book Award Finalist Patricia Smith. Like her, Danez bridges the poetics of the stage to that of the page. Danez's work transcends arbitrary boundaries to present work that is gripping, dismantling of oppression constructs, and striking on the human heart. Often centered around intersections of race, class, sexuality, faith, and social justice, Danez uses rhythm, fierce raw power, and image to re-imagine the world as takes it apart in their work |
Franny Choi |
Franny Choi is the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), which Muzzle Magazine called “a haunted house with windows opening onto surprising moments of beauty and joy.” She has received awards from the Poetry Foundation and the Kentucky Women Writers’ Conference for her poems, which have been published (or are forthcoming) in Poetry Magazine, Indiana Review, The Journal, Margins, PANK, and others. Her work has been featured by the Huffington Post, PBS NewsHour, Feministing, andAngry Asian Man.
Franny is a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellow and former Co-Director of the Providence Poetry Slam, one of the most highly-regarded spoken word poetry communities in the nation. She has been a finalist in performance poetry competitions including the National Poetry Slam, the Individual World Poetry Slam, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She has performed her work in schools, conferences, bars, theaters, and festivals across the country. As a Project VOICE teaching artist, she has taught students of all ages and levels of experience, from first graders in New York City to high school English teachers in Western Pennsylvania. A Kundiman Fellow and graduate of the VONA Workshop, she is also a founding member of the multidisciplinary artists of color collective Dark Noise. |