W.J. Lofton
Black-and-white photograph of W.J. Lofton mid-stride before a wall of vines, in a woven bucket hat, heavy chain, and cowboy boots, carrying a spray of white orchids. W.J. Lofton in a straw bucket hat, chain, and wide black trousers, cradling a bowl of white orchids in an overgrown lot beside a concrete block. W.J. Lofton, small in the frame, stands on cracked pavement at the edge of a green field in low sun, holding white orchids. W.J. Lofton in silhouette against a low sun, holding orchids, his shadow stretching across the pavement.
Photograph: Myles Berry 1 / 4

W.J. Lofton is a Black queer Southern poet, memoirist, and multimodal artist in Atlanta, Georgia.

Books

boy maybe

Poems. Beacon Press, Raised Voices, 2025Finalist, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry

Fifty-one poems on Black queer Southern life: love and flirtation, God and family, grief, and witness to police killings, in conversation with Hughes, Brooks, Hemphill, and Baldwin.

“boy maybe touches my heart with its soft, honest lyrics and shakes me up with its brilliant singing.”Danez Smith
Beacon Press   Bookshop.org
  • SUE CITY, A MemoirBeacon Press, forthcoming
  • A Garden for Black Boys Between the Stages of Soil & Stardust2018
  • These Flowers Were Held by Broken Vases
About

Born in Chicago and raised in Valley, Alabama, Lofton lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he co-curates Rebellion: A Writing Salon at For Keeps Books.

He is the author of boy maybe (Beacon Press, 2025), a finalist for the 38th Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry. A recipient of Ava DuVernay’s LEAP Grant, he is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, an Obsidian Foundation Fellow, and an Emory University Arts and Social Justice Fellow.

His poems, essays, and films have appeared in Poetry, Callaloo, TIME, American Poets, Obsidian, Scalawag, wildness, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, and in the anthologies No Justice, No Peace and Prose to the People.

His work concerns the liberation of Black, Brown, and historically marginalized people. He is completing a memoir, Sue City, forthcoming from Beacon Press.

Archive
  1. Poem“Biting Iron,” Poetry2026
  2. Poem“A Better Place,” “Runaway,” “Floodwater,” Callaloo2026
  3. Poem“The Lord is American,” Poem-a-Day, Academy of American Poets; reprinted in Witness: Poems to Address the Past, Present, and Future of Police (Lerner)2025
  4. Poem“Language,” American Poets2025
  5. Poem“WHERE WE GATHER,” Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores (Penguin Random House)2025
  6. Poem“Somethin’,” “To The Gworl Crying on the Bus, Staring Out the Window,” Wussy, Vol. 142025
  7. Poem“Already Flesh,” Stonecoast Review2023
  8. Poem“that one uncle we all know,” “the flower will make its debut when everyone is dying,” “jimmy,” Allium2023
  9. Poem“adjust your hips,” Flyway2023
  10. Poem“dusk? no, dust!,” Jet Fuel Review2022
  11. Poem“to keep the flies away,” “lady day visits glynn county,” wildness2022
  12. Poem“Language,” Rust & Moth2019
  13. Poem“Resin,” The Spirit It Travels: An Anthology of Transcendent Poetry2019
  14. Poem“Body Smoke,” Scalawag2018
  15. Poem“Black Men Can Cry In Wakanda,” Obsidian, Vol. 44, No. 12018
  16. Poem“Dancing on the Moon,” Meniscus2017
  17. Poem“The Holy Ghost and Black Women,” Connotation Press2017
  18. Poem“When the Saints Go Marching,” Spiral Orb2017
  19. Essay / Film“Wide-Eyed Prophets Who Showed Us A Different God,” No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter (Legacy Lit)2022
  20. Essay / Film“Can These Bones Live?,” Scalawag2021
  21. Essay / Film“Our Toni,” Scalawag2019
  22. Essay / Film“Would You Kill God Too?,” TIME; commissioned by ARRAY’s Law Enforcement Accountability Project2021
  23. Press“A Chorus of Contradictions,” Adedayo Agarau, at Los Angeles Review of Books
  24. Press“W.J. Lofton vs. Grief,” at the VS podcast
  25. Press“I wrote the book that saved my life,” at ArtsATL
  26. PressProfile, at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  27. PressInterview on boy maybe, at Queerty
  28. PressInterview, at WFPL
  29. HonorLambda Literary Award Finalist, Gay Poetry2026
  30. HonorObsidian Foundation Fellow (UK)2025
  31. HonorCave Canem Graduate Fellow, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg2023–25
  32. HonorEmory University Arts and Social Justice Fellow2023
  33. HonorPoet in Residence, Beacon Hill Middle School, Decatur, GA2023–24
  34. HonorPoet in Residence, Paint Love, Atlanta, GA2022–23
  35. HonorPoet in Residence, 100WEST, Corsicana, TX2022
  36. HonorCenter for African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize Finalist2022
  37. HonorLaw Enforcement Accountability Project Grantee, ARRAY Alliance2020
  38. Curatoriallet the circle be unbroken, co-curator, Haugabrooks Gallery, Atlanta2025
  39. CuratorialRebellion: A Writing Salon, program curator, For Keeps Bookstore, Atlanta2022–
  40. CuratorialBloom, creative director, photography by Sydney A. Foster; Der Greif, Issue 16; Paris Photo Week2023
  41. CuratorialUndoing the Plot: A Data-Driven Exhibit on Mass Incarceration and Police Brutality, Emory University2023
  42. CuratorialWide-Eyed Wonders, Juneteenth Exhibition, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa2022
  43. CuratorialJuneteenth Exhibition, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa2021
  44. AppearanceLincoln Center, guest performer, New York, NY2026
  45. AppearancePoetry Foundation, featured speaker, Chicago, IL2026
  46. AppearanceNorthwestern University, featured speaker, Evanston, IL2026
  47. AppearanceDecatur Book Festival, featured speaker, Decatur, GA2025
  48. Appearanceboy maybe national tour, 12 cities; launch keynote at Auburn Avenue Research Library, Atlanta2025
  49. AppearanceGiants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, performance, High Museum of Art, Atlanta2025
  50. AppearanceBlues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes, in conversation with Jericho Brown and Danez Smith, Charis Books, Decatur, GA2025
  51. AppearanceIn My Own Time: Black Poets on Paradox and History, Emory University2024
  52. AppearanceA Poignant Line: Black Queer Poets on Love, Furious Flower Conference, James Madison University2024
  53. AppearanceBuilding the Will for a Thriving Future, performance, The Rippel Foundation / The Carter Center, Atlanta2024
  54. AppearanceA Toast to Visionary Voices in Art & Democracy, New Media Ventures / Zucot Gallery, Atlanta
  55. AppearanceMeditations on Our History, Noting Our Now and Conjuring Our Futures, Mitchell Hamline School of Law2022
  56. AppearanceBlack Excellence as in Black Queerness, keynote, James Madison University2022
  57. AppearancePolice Violence Symposium, speaker, Dartmouth College2022
  58. AppearanceHow Mass Incarceration Impacts Families, performance, The 19th News2021
Contact
@mrjamespoetrylofthouse.creatives@gmail.com