Darius Simpson
writer. poet. performer.
ABOUT
Darius Simpson
is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. He received an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Mills College. Darius was a recipient of the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship, a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is the author of Never Catch Me (Button Poetry, 2022).​ He hopes to inspire that feeling you get that makes you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius' poems have appeared in POETRY Magazine, The Adroit Journal, American Poetry Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and others. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of all oppressed people by any means available. Free the People. Free the Land. Free All Political Prisoners.
WRITING
"ma'am i'm sorry to tell you your son is d-" Split This Rock
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"early 2000s fashion was a confusing time for all of us" The American Poetry Review
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"we don't die" New Ohio Review
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"etymology of 'fuck 12'" The Adroit Journal
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"i left the church in search of god" Southern Humanities Review
VIDEOS
Genocide
Proximity
What We Call A Thing
Dear 7th Grade Self
In Defense of Scar
CONTACT
To book Darius to facilitate a writing workshop, host/emcee your event, perform an individual piece or feature-long set, or talk about 90s R&B, please fill out this form.
Never Catch Me
“Never Catch Me belongs in the throat of every megaphone. Each line, an anthem; a heart-crafted survival map; an elegy. Simpson's work is boisterous, urgent and unintentionally holy.”
—Janae Johnson, author of Lessons on Being Tenderheaded
"In these pages, a two-step is a righteous rhythm bucking against the one & three count of the illegitimate state. Here, love is both a war drum and unclenched scraped knuckles. Not only do the poems in Never Catch Me chronicle, but they’re an urgent call to action."
—Daniel B. Summerhill, author of Divine, Divine, Divine & Mausoleum of Flowers
