Grayson Thompson [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 A CONGREGATION OF ALLIGATORS. Grayson has been featured in Cathexis Northwest Press, Foglifter, 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. He was able to open for the badass Kansas City Poet Laureate, Melissa Ferrer Civil, and a hero— the amazing, Donika Kelly. Grayson is a teaching assistant for poet Buddy Wakefield’s Writer’s Anonymous where he supports emerging and established word assemblers. A wanderer, he lives in Northern California where you can find him hiking, curating salad recipes, and in awe of the ocean. He chooses madness, honesty and full-heartedness. He hopes you can find some in his poems.

Find him on IG: @graysonwritespoems