WRITER & TEACHING ARTIST

Born in Massachusetts, raised between Florida and New England, Grayson’s work centers the body and its relationship to the prerequisites needed for social existence…to be recognized by others as being human. His poems explore race, queerness, and gender; family, grief, and grace.

Through engaging with his poems, you’ll find that Grayson interrogates what it means to be a child, how to access joy, and reimagine identity. How does one become a person? How do we make sense of the outline of home?

Grayson [he/him] is a Black, Jamaican-American, queer transgender cowboy poet who moonlights as a therapist. A mouthful, Grayson is Foglifter Press' 2024 Start A Riot! Chapbook Prize Winner with SAND BODIED FLORIDA BOY and Winner of Write Bloody Publishing's 2024 Jack McCarthy Book Prize for his full-length collection (September 2025).

He has been featured Cathexis Northwest Press, Foglifter Press, Cleaver (nominated for Best of the Net Anthology), Poetry Online, and other homes for poetry. As a performer for the Exhibit B Literary Variety Show in Kansas City during the 2024 AWP Conference where he was able to open for the badass Kansas City Poet Laureate, Melissa Ferrer Civil, and a hero— the amazing, Donika Kelly. A wanderer, he lives in Northern California on Southern Pomo territory (Santa Rosa) where you can find him hiking, curating salad recipes, and in awe of the ocean. He chooses madness, honest and full-hearted. He hopes you can find some in his poems.

Buddy Wakefield’s Writer’s Anonymous

Buddy Wakefield is a mountain-hearted, generous-bodied, word assembler. He also happens to be the most toured poet in history and a three-time world champion spoken word artist. I am humbled, lucky, and honored to help him hold the container of magic for new and established poets as a teaching assistant for the last two sessions. Come to get back in your body on purpose, stay for the community.