North Carolina native D. M. Spratley (she/her) is a mixed-race, Black, queer, Southern poet. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, 32 Poems, Shenandoah, Drunken Boat, and the Lambda Literary Poetry Spotlight, among other journals. 

She has received fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Wildacres Leadership Institute, and Hollins University, and her poem “Each Morning an Animal” won the 2020 Sundress Publications Broadside Contest. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University and her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, where she completed a creative thesis under the guidance of Tracy K. Smith. 

Her recent work includes a full-length poetry manuscript and a fiction project, and her micro-chapbook, "Some Tricks I Was Born Knowing," published in August 2020. During spring 2022, Spratley is Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writer-in-Residence, teaching a creative writing course to students.

Spratley lives in North Carolina and works as an independent consultant with organizations that seek to build intersectional, anti-racist strategies and practices.

Emet Ezell

D.M. Sprately will be joined on stage by poet and writer Emet Ezell, recipient of the 2021 Gloria Anzaldúa poetry prize and debut chapbook, “Between Every Bird Our Bones,” to be published by Newfound Press in fall 2022.

Please note: This is a rescheduled event. The original event was scheduled to occur on January 20, 2022.