Kay Ulanday Barrett

Poet, performer, and educator Kay Ulanday Barrett is the author of the poetry collections When The Chant Comes (Topside Press, 2016) and More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020), which is a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and Stonewall Honor Award Book. Their poems also appear in the anthologies Subject To Change (2017), Outside the XY: Queer Black & Brown Masculinity (2016), and Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices (2015), and in magazines such as The Margins and EOAGH.

Barrett has spoken, performed, or facilitated workshops at several colleges, including Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania; museums, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Chicago Historical Society; and in social justice communities. They have been the recipient or finalist for many honors, including the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, the Windy City Times Pride Literary Poetry Prize and their Chicago’s LGBTQ 30 Under 30 award, and were named a Filipino American History Month Hero by 18 Million Rising.

Barrett served as a guest faculty member at the 2018 Poetry Incubator, hosted by the Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary. They have received fellowships from the Home School, Drunken Boat, MacDowell, and Lambda Literary.