Danez Smith + The Hot Daddy

You're back, dear listener, and just in time to hear us fangirl over fangirling, We also interview American treasure Danez Smith while sipping Hot Daddies. DANEZ SMITH is a Black, Queer, Poz writer & performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award, and [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. They are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Montalvo Arts Center, Cave Canem, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Danez's work has been featured widely including on Buzzfeed, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Danez is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and is the co-host of VS with Franny Choi, a podcast sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Postloudness. Danez’s third collection, Homie, will be published by Graywolf in Spring 2020. THE HOT DADDY Fun fact! Langston Hughes’s favorite cocktail was one he invented called the ‘Hard Daddy.’ As described in a letter to a friend, the ‘Hard Daddy’ = whiskey, maple syrup, lemon juice, and ice. For our recording sesh with Danez Smith, we decided to make a hot version of this intriguingly named cocktail, subbing hot water for the ice and serving it in a cozy mug. Go generous with the lemon and light on the syrup and your taste buds will be happy. Pairs perfectly with cold winter Mondays, Ezell’s chicken, and this here episode. INGREDIENTS: 2 oz Irish whiskey; fresh lemon; maple syrup; hot water REFERENCES: 2018 National Book Award Poetry Finalists, The Fat Sonnets by Samantha Zighelboim, The Tradition by Jericho Brown, Youth Speaks Brave New Voices, "summer, somewhere", "Litany with Blood All Over" and "Not an Elegy" by Danez Smith; Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi; Heavy by Kiese Laymon