Destiny O. Birdsong

Destiny O. Birdsong is a poet, novelist, and essayist whose work has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, African American Review, and Poets & Writers, among other publications. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published in 2020 by Tin House and was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award. Her debut novel, Nobody’s Magic, was published in February 2022 from Grand Central Publishing and has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. During July 2022, she was the Hurston-Wright Foundation’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Rutgers University-Newark. She now serves as a 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Birdsong's Plenary Address took place on Friday, April 21, 2023 at MTSU. A recording of the event, including the introduction by Jennifer Wachtel Kates, appears below.