April is National Poetry Month, which means it’s the perfect time for the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library to host its annual Raymond Danowski Poetry Library reading with Pulitzer Prize in Poetry finalist and acclaimed author, critic and poetry slam champion Danez Smith.
Open to the public at no charge, the reading will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, at the Auburn Avenue Research Library (101 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30303). Register for tickets in advance and plan to arrive early because seating and parking are limited.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Smith is known for their powerful, emotional writings. They are the author of four celebrated poetry collections, including “[insert] boy” (2014), “Don’t Call Us Dead” (2017), “Homie” (2020) and most recently, “Bluff” (2024), for which they were named a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry finalist. They also curated “Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes” (2024).
Their work has been recognized with the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Smith has also been a finalist for the National Book Award, the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. They also have received an array of grants, fellowships and residencies, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Princeton Arts Fellowship.
Smith delivers poetry that engages urgent questions of identity, justice, language and belonging. In recent years, they have written the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ-related issues, and violence against immigrants and protestors in Minneapolis.
Rose Library strives to represent all the different facets of poetry with both its collections and its readings, bringing in talents to read their work ranging from well-known poet laureates to emerging poets, says director Elizabeth Ott.
“Smith's poetry is very engaged in the cultural and political landscape of our present times,” says Ott. “And if you think about some of our foundational poets at Rose Library, from Seamus Heaney to Natasha Tretheway or Lucille Clifton, they are poets who write about the complex political and social and cultural crossroads that they find themselves mired within.
“Poetry is not just an art form and not just for study,” Ott continues. “It's also a tool through which we understand social and political upheaval, and Smith’s body of work challenges us to engage in just this way.”
Smith is also a founding member of the multi-genre, multicultural Dark Noise Collective, which features some of the most exciting, insightful and powerful poets writing today. Smith’s writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Lit Hub, “Best American Poetry,” on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and in many other outlets. In poetry slam, Smith was a 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam finalist and the two-time Rustbelt Individual Champion.
“Danez Smith rose to international acclaim with their debut collection of poetry back in 2017,” says Heather Christle, poet and associate professor of English and creative writing in Emory’s English department. “In ‘Bluff,’ they demonstrate their restless seeking for what poetry can, and cannot, achieve, pushing at the boundaries of the page and language to do so. They just keep raising the bar and then clearing it! To top it off, they are an incredibly compelling performer, and I'm so excited that the people of Emory and Atlanta will get to bear witness to this in person.”
Christle, who is teaching “Bluff” this year in her Advanced Poetry Seminar, is the faculty partner for the Danowski public reading on April 18. She will collaborate with the library to promote the reading to Emory students as well as plan a student engagement event at Rose Library where Emory students will meet with Smith and ask questions about their poetry, career and writing.
Smith’s reading is part of a two-day poetry weekend that begins Friday, April 17, when they will read more of their award-winning works as the distinguished guest poet for the 26th Annual 12th Night Revel, a gala dinner and glittering evening of poetry benefiting the Rose Library.
The 12th Night Revel takes place at 6 p.m. April 17 at the Atlanta History Center, with Branden Grimmett, Emory’s vice provost for career and professional development and associate dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences, serving as Chief Reveler.
The event is open to the public, and newcomers are welcome to join the festivities, which include dinner, poetry readings from attendees, and the opportunity to mingle with Smith and fellow guests. Individual and group tickets may be purchased on the 12th Night ticket webpage.
“I hope that people who come to this year's reading will have that opportunity to be transformed by poetry, to experience it with all the senses, not just to read it silently, but to be in community with one another,” says Ott.
In addition to their writing, Smith teaches in the Randolph College MFA program and at the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul. They currently live in Minneapolis.
Smith’s public reading at Emory is sponsored by the Hightower Fund, Emory Libraries and the Rose Library, Emory’s Department of English and the Creative Writing Program, Emory Arts, Auburn Avenue Research Library and the Decatur Book Festival.
2026 12th Night Revel and Danowski Poetry readings
Friday, April 17: 12th Night Revel
6 p.m., Atlanta History Center
Saturday, April 18: Raymond Danowski Poetry Library Reading
2 p.m., Auburn Avenue Research Library