A Black queer writer, poet, and performer from St. Paul, Minn., Danez Smith is the author of the brilliant Don’t Call Us Dead, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Their work has been called a “gauntlet for all of us to speak our deepest truths with more elegance, more ferocity, and almost more beauty than a reader can bear.”
4. Gabby Rivera
You probably know the Bronx’s Gabby Rivera as the writer behind America, Marvel’s first comic starring a lesbian Latinx superhero. She’s also the author of YA novel Juliet Takes a Breath. ICYMI: we chopped it up with her in November.
Journalist and activist George M. Johnson recently signed a book deal for his forthcoming YA memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue. His work has been featured by ET, NBC, Teen Vogue, and more.
Hari Ziyad is the editor-in-chief of RaceBaitR and managing editor of the Black Youth Project. Their debut book, Black Boy out of Time, is scheduled to be released in 2019 via Little A Books.
7. J Mase III
Seattle-based Black/trans/queer poet and educator J Mase III is the author of If I Should Die Under the Knife. The founder of awQward, the first-ever trans and queer people of color specific talent agency, he has also worked with community members across America, the UK and Canada on the needs of LGBTQIA youth and adults.
The award-winning author of The Summer We Got Free, Mia McKenzie, born and raised in Philly, is also creator of the Black Girl Dangerous blog. You’ll also find her steering the ship at Black Girl Dangerous Media, an independent media and education project that centers queer Black women and girls, as explained on her website.
Myles Johnson aka HausMuva is a NYC-based writer and editor with bylines in the New York Times, Essence, and more. Revisit his moving “Running Away” piece from our Heat x Seekers issue here.
