Nobody’s Magic
February 8th, 2022
Available Now!
“The magic here is not the supernatural kind, but rather an attention to the grace of the ordinary. It is the magic of watching these women come into their power.”
—New York Times
“With voices that are appealingly modern and distinct, the three women face hardships complicated by a history of racial and social injustice.”
—The Washington Post
“Birdsong imbues the characters with palpable emotions and crafts spot-on dialogue, conveying vernacular speech with layers of pathos and wit. It’s a stunning achievement.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“A powerful portrait of womanhood and the beautiful mess that comes along with it…. It’s a stunning read.”
—Associated Press
“Birdsong’s novel is a searing meditation on grief, female strength and self-discovery, and is perfect for fans of the film Moonlight by Barry Jenkins.”
—Good Morning America, GMA Buzz Pick
Negotiations
October 13th, 2020
(Virtual Tour Videos Here!)
Available Now!
“Reading Negotiations is like grabbing a piece of metal so cold it feels like fire in your palm. . . . A collection that is equal parts pain and power.”
—Josh Cook, Porter Square Books
“Birdsong debuts with an extraordinary string of immaculate, brutal narratives about systemic violence and racism, and their repercussions for Black American women.”
—Maya C. Popa, Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)
“Birdsong’s poems bring the heart and the heat.”
—Sarah Neilson, Lithub (Book Marks)
“These poems are genuine, powerful, and not always easy to consume but nevertheless contain a unique, raw emotion.”
—Katie Tamola, Shondaland
“Negotiations signals the arrival of a voice we should all be paying attention to, one that thoughtfully and purposefully broadens our thinking about the interiority of Black women’s lives.”
—Evette Dionne, Bitch Media
Follow me on social media for the most up-to-date information about readings and other events.
Readings and Events
Conversations
“Destiny O. Birdsong on Navigating Censorship in Storytelling”
with Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton, Ursa Short Fiction, January 15th, 2025
“Effortless is Not Easy”
with Nikesha Elise Williams, Black & Published, February 20th, 2023
“S3EP15—Dr. Destiny O. Birdsong”
with Chris L. Butler, THE POETRY QUESTION: TPQ20 Podcast, September 20th, 2022
Livestream with Salma El-Wardany
Tattered Cover Book Store (Virtual), June 10th, 2022
Kali Fajardo-Anstine in Conversation with Destiny O. Birdsong
Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN, June 6th, 2022
Instagram Live Conversation with the Author of Nobody’s Magic
with Jordan Hernandez, Completely Booked, April 6th, 2022
An Interview with Destiny O. Birdsong
with Ashley, Feminist Book Club: The Podcast, March 17th, 2022
“Episode 206: Who Are You Loving When You Write with Destiny O. Birdsong”
with Traci Thomas, The Stacks Pod, March 16th, 2022
We Welcome Author Destiny O. Birdsong
with Fallon Hamilton, This Browne Girl Reads (Virtual), March 15th, 2022
“Episode 15: High School”
with Reggie Bailey and Akili Nzuri, Books Are Pop Culture, March 13th, 2022
“A Novel About Black Women with Albinism in All Their Messy Complexity”
with Tyrese L. Coleman, Electric Literature, March 2nd, 2022
“Destiny O. Birdsong Brings Poetic Beauty to Her First Novel, Nobody’s Magic”
with Sarah Neilson, Shondaland, February 9th, 2022
“Debut Spotlight with Destiny O Birdsong”
with Rachel Barenbaum, A Mighty Blaze (Virtual), February 9th, 2022
“Negotiating the Love and Renouncing the Rest: Donika Kelly and Destiny O. Birdsong in Conversation”
Tin House Summer Workshop (Virtual) and Between the Covers, July 14th, 2021
How The Word is Passed: Clint Smith in Conversation with Destiny O. Birdsong
Poets & Writers Live (Virtual), July 8th, 2021
“Episode 86: Destiny O. Birdsong vs. Mess”
with Danez Smith and Franny Choi, The VS Podcast, June 22nd, 2021
Garden Issue Launch (with Kazim Ali, Anni Liu, Oindrila Mukherjee, Rose Skelton, and Nomi Stone)
Ecotone (Virtual), April 18th, 2021
“Ways to Open a Door: An Interview with Destiny Birdsong”
with Claire Schwartz, The Paris Review (January 2021)
“A Life in Poetry: Our Sixteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets”
with Dana Isokawa, Poets & Writers (December 2020)
“Revisiting and Reinventing the Body: A Conversation with Destiny O. Birdsong”
with Sarah Kersey, The Rumpus (November 2020)
“Poems That Ask How We Value Black Women’s Lives”
with Arriel Vinson, Electric Literature (October 2020)
“Destiny O. Birdsong: Infinite Negotiations”
with Lily Meyer, Guernica (October 2020)
“Ten Questions for Destiny O. Birdsong”
with Dana Isokawa, Poets & Writers (October 2020)
“Poets at MacDowell: Destiny Birdsong, Juleen Johnson, Jenny George, Eloisa Amezcua, and Amanda Galvan Huynh”
with Rachel Zucker, The Commonplace Podcast, Episode 48, March 21st, 2018
“In Conversation: Destiny O. Birdsong”
with Sethu Mbuli, Love This Skin (January 2018)
Conferences
Annual Plenary Address
The Southern Literary Festival, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, April 2023
“Occupational Hazards: Teaching and Writing Risk Across Genres”
Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Annual Conference and Bookfair, Seattle, WA, March 2023
TORCH Literary Arts Presents: A Conversation with Destiny O. Birdsong and Remica Bingham-Risher with Amanda Johnston (moderator)
Texas Book Festival, Austin, November 2022
“Crime Writing” (a panel with Kelly Mustian and Eli Cranor)
Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, October 2022
Destiny O. Birdsong and Jewel Thomas in Conversation
Six Bridges Book Festival, Little Rock, AR, October 2022
“Holding the Power: Craft & Body” (with Meghan O’Rourke and Chloé Cooper Jones)
PEN America World Voices Festival, New York City, May 2022
“A Mind of One’s Own: An Asset-Based Look at Writing from Mental Difference”
Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Annual Conference and Bookfair (virtual), March 2021
“We Are Who We’ve Been Waiting For: Writers of Color Talk Peer Mentorship”
Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference and Bookfair, San Antonio, TX, March 2020
“not too dirty nor too dim”: Reading Gwendolyn Brooks in the Age of New Black Feminism and #blackgirlmagic
Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, January 2019
The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America: June Jordan’s Essay as Manifesto and Beyond (seminar format)
Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers Twenty-Third Annual Conference, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, November 2018
Holding Space Beyond the Page: Black Women Writers on Solidarity (panel)
Split This Rock Poetry Festival, Washington, D. C., April 2018
my particular truth as I have seen it”: Black Women Writers Taking Back Their Narratives (panel)
AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair, Tampa, FL, March 2018
Transgressing Boundaries: The Politics of Identity and Knowledge Transmission in Emily Raboteau’s The Professor’s Daughter
The African American Intellectual History Society’s Third Annual Conference, Vanderbilt University, March 2017
Can You See Us? Policed Black Womanhood (craft talk)
Split This Rock Poetry Festival, Washington, D.C., April 2016
Can I Live?: Writing Policed Black Women’s Bodies (craft talk)
AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair, Los Angeles, CA, April 2016
Life on a Crystal Stair: Depictions of Traumatic Knowledge Transmission Between Mothers and Daughters in Black Women’s Literature
Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nagoya, Japan, July 2011
Close Calls: Maternal Trauma, Knowledge Transmission, and Transnational Identity in Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones
Sixth Annual Caribbean Women’s Writing Conference: Comparative Critical Conversations, London, UK, June 2011
Poetry
Coniston Prize Reading, featuring Nina C. Peláez, Destiny O. Birdsong, Caitlin Cowan, Alyssa Froehling, Cara Waterfall, and Chelsea Woodard
Radar Poetry (Virtual), October 21st, 2024
Poetry in the City (with Tarfia Faizullah, Katie Condon, and Stacie McCormick [moderator])
Dallas Literary Festival at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, March 4th, 2023
Louisiana Poets (with State Poet Laureate Mona Lisa Savoy moderating)
Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, October 29th, 2022
The Creative Writing Series: A Reading by Destiny O. Birdsong
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, September 19th, 2022
Let Freedom Sing
The Nashville Symphony, Nashville, TN, March 10th, 2022
Writers House at Franklin and Marshall and Poetry Magazine Present Destiny Birdsong, Stevie Edwards, and Anni Liu (hosted by Su Cho)
Franklin and Marshall College (Virtual), February 10th, 2022
Cave Canem Celebration Reading (with makalani bandele, Keith S. Wilson, L. Lamar Wilson, Adrienne Christian, and Cornelius Eady)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Virtual), October 25th, 2021
In Conversation: Destiny Birdsong, Janisse Ray, and Marianne Worthington
The Southern Festival of Books (Virtual), October 9th, 2021
Soul Sister Revue Reading Series (with Shayla Lawz, Grisel Y. Acosta, Douglas Kearney, and Ada Limón)
Soul Sister Revue (Virtual), August 6th, 2021
Tin House Summer Workshop 2021 Faculty Reading (with Zaina Arafat, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Dantiel W. Moniz, and Jaquira Díaz)
Tin House (Virtual), July 12th, 2021
The Downtown Writers Center Presents Destiny O. Birdsong
YMCA of Central New York (Virtual), June 4th, 2021
Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Reading
Vanderbilt University (Virtual), March 25th, 2021
Black History Month: Four Poets Speak (with Keith S. Wilson, makalani bandele, and Ama Codjoe)
Writers & Books (Virtual), February 23rd, 2021
Love Talks: An Evening with Michele Morano and Destiny O. Birdsong
DePaul University (Virtual), January 19th, 2021
LipService: The Inaugural Reading
The Estuary Collective (Virtual), January 15th, 2021
Birthing the Book
The Porch (Virtual), November 5th, 2020
Molly Spencer Launches Hinge (with Destiny O. Birdsong, Molly McCully Brown, and Alysia Sawchyn)
Literati Bookstore (Virtual), October 29th, 2020
Visiting Writers Series
Writers and Books (Virtual), October 26th, 2020
A Reading and Conversation with Shayla Lawson
Deep Vellum Books (Virtual), October 22nd, 2020
Destiny O. Birdsong with Morgan Parker & Tommy Pico
Books Are Magic (Virtual), October 21st, 2020
Cave Canem & Bowery Poetry Present: First Books (with Tarfia Faizullah)
Bowery Poetry (Virtual), October 19th, 2020
P&P Live! Sick Forms: Writing About Illness Across Genres (with Megan Cummins and Sarah Ramey)
Politics and Prose (Virtual), October 16th, 2020
Negotiations Book Launch with J Wortham
Parnassus Books (Virtual), October 14th, 2020
In Conversation with Nate Marshall
The Southern Festival of Books (Virtual), October 10th, 2020
The Breakbeat Poets Live! Chapter 4 (with Mahogany Browne, Nate Marshall, Camonghne Felix, Jacob Saenz, and Ric Wilson)
Haymarket Books (Virtual), July 22nd, 2020
Tin House Poetry Night (with Hanif Abdurraqib, Ariana Reines, and Megan Fernandes)
Diesel: A Bookstore (Virtual), July 21st, 2020
Lyrical Brew’s Seventh Anniversary Celebration
Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN, February 28th, 2020
Let Freedom Sing
The Nashville Symphony, Nashville, TN, January 19th, 2020
Poetry In the Brew
Portland Brew East, Nashville, TN, May 11th, 2019
Books, Bars, and Guitars, featuring Jericho Brown
Analog at Hutton Hotel, Nashville, TN, May 4th, 2019
We As Women (presented by ACLU-TN and Lyft)
Go West Creative, Nashville, TN, April 29th, 2019
Nashville Poetry Festival
Bongo Java, Nashville, TN, April 14th, 2019
Cheers! An AWP Happy Hour Poetry Salon
Crush Bar, Portland, OR, March 30th, 2019
Afternoon Reading at AWP (hosted by Dynamo Verlag Press)
Rose City Book Pub, Portland, OR, March 30th, 2019
Pleiades Offsite Reading at AWP
The Slide Inn, Portland, OR, March 28th, 2019
Nashville Public Radio’s Podcast Party (as part of Poetry On Demand)
Nashville Children’s Theatre, Nashville, TN, August 18th, 2018
Memphis Literary Arts Festival
Memphis, TN, June 16th, 2018
Poetry Reading Celebrating ReVerb, a New Podcast
Third Man Books, Nashville, TN, April 15th, 2018
Muzzle/Vinyl Offsite Reading at AWP
The Bricks, Tampa FL, March 8th, 2018
Naugatuck River Review Annual Contest Reading at AWP
Inkwell Books, Tampa, FL, March 8th, 2018
AWP Offsite Cave Canem Fellows Reading
University of South Florida’s Traditions Hall, Tampa, FL, March 7th, 2018
#Resist Poetry Reading
Her Bookshop, Nashville, March 4th, 2018
A Reading and Discussion with Current MacDowell Colony Fellows
The Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH, February 3rd, 2018
EastSide Storytellin’ with Michael B. Hicks (musician)
The Post East, Nashville, September 5th, 2017
Poetry in the ‘Boro (Poetry reading with Allison Boyd Justus, followed by Open Mic)
The Green Dragon Public House, Murfreesboro, TN, May 18th, 2017
Nashville Public Radio’s Podcast Party (as part of Poetry On Demand)
Nashville Children’s Theatre, May 11th, 2017
Poets, Playwrights & Players II: A Special Night Blending Music and the Spoken Word
The Family Wash, Nashville, April 28th, 2017
Mercy & Magic: An Evening with Mary Gauthier & Wally Lamb (The Porch’s Third Annual Fundraiser)
Green Door Gourmet, Nashville, March 11th, 2017
Nashville International Women’s Day, 2017
OZ Arts Nashville, March 8th, 2017
Post-screening Reading and Discussion for I Am Not Your Negro
Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, February 25th, 2017
Naugatuck River Review Reading at AWP
The Washington, D.C. Convention Center, February 9th, 2017
Pink Door Retreat’s Poetry and Pie Night
Rochester, NY, October 9th, 2016
Lyrical Brew: An Evening of Poetry
Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, May 27th, 2016
Poetry at Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt (hosted by Rose Alley Press)
Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, April 29th, 2016
“Written by Our Selves: The Craft of Immobile Corporeality”
AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair, Los Angeles, April 1st, 2016
AWP Offsite Event: Cave Canem Benefit and Fellows Reading
Elysian Restaurant, Los Angeles, March 30th, 2016
Publications
Fiction
“Before I Let Go”
Callaloo 42.4 (March 2025)
“The Jump”
The Audacity: A Newsletter from Roxane Gay (September 11th, 2024)
“Fair Exchange”
Rejoinder (June 2024)
Ursa Story of the Week: “Playing Asleep” by Destiny O. Birdsong
Ursa Story Company (January 2023)
Nonfiction
“Double Dreaming, Double Imagining”: An Interview with Douglas Kearney
Poets & Writers (May/June 2025)
“A New Hurston’s ‘Incomplete’ Truths”
Poets & Writers (Jan/Feb 2025)
“Imani Perry Writes the Blues”: An Interview
BookPage (January 2025)
“The Definition of Poetry: An Interview with Mosab Abu Toha”
Poets & Writers (Nov/Dec 2024)
“Kyla Kupferstein Torres of Callaloo”: a Q&A
Poets & Writers (Sept/Oct 2024)
“The Brass Tacks of the Publishing Process”
Poets & Writers (May/June 2024)
“A Question of Character: An Interview with Ayana Mathis”
BookPage (October 2023)
“How to Survive the Darkness of Our Days: A Profile of Roger Reeves”
Poets & Writers (Sept/Oct 2023)
“Ross Gay Can Write About More Than Just Delight”
Bookpage (November 2022)
“New Dictionary Seeks Public Input”
Poets & Writers (November/December 2022)
A Different Kind of Violence: Representing Albinism in True Crime
The Cincinnati Review (August 2022)
The Best Novellas Written by Black People About Black People
Shepherd.com (July 2022)
“Nashville’s Gentrification Is Driving Away Young Black Residents Like Me”
Nashville Scene, (October 2021)
“Interrobang and Myth”
POETRY Magazine (October 2021)
“Queerness Gave Me a New Way of Seeing Myself”
Catapult (August 2021)
“How We Remember: A Profile of Clint Smith”
Poets & Writers (July/Aug 2021)
“When a Friendship Ends But the Love Survives”
Catapult (June 2021)
“12 Books by Black Female Travel Writers Everyone Should Read”
Lonely Planet (February 2021)
“Interview: Anna Malaika Tubbs”
BookPage (February 2021)
“Surviving Karen Medicine”
Catapult (February 2021)
“Ways to Open a Door: An Interview with Destiny Birdsong”
The Paris Review (January 2021)
“A Life in Poetry: Our Sixteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets”
Poets & Writers (December 2020)
“When There Is No Right Way To Heal”
Catapult, November 2020
“All Hands on Deck”
Nashville Scene, September 2020
Co-winner of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s Alt-Weeklies Award for Best Column, 2021
“Interviews: Natasha Trethewey“
BookPage, August 2020
“Be Good”
The Paris Review, July 2020
“Build Back a Body”
Ecotone (July 2020)
“On Minor Miracles and Why We Still Need Marilyn Nelson’s Poetry”
The Fight and The Fiddle (Winter 2019)
“Black Atlantic and Diaspora Literature” (as first author with Ifeoma C. K. Nwankwo)
The Cambridge Companion to Transnational American Literature. Ed. Yogita Goyal (2017)
“‘Memories that are(n’t) mine’: Matrilineal Cultural Trauma and Defiant Reinscription in Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard (2006)”
African American Review (Spring/Summer 2015)
“SlutWalk From the Margins” (as co-author with Donika Kelly, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, and Nicole Spigner)
The Feminist Wire (Oct 2011)
Poetry
Poem Suite: Finalist, 2024 Coniston Prize
Radar Poetry 40 (October 2024)
“David and Jonathan Meet in a Field Outside Ramah” (Best of the Net Nominee)
The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought 19 (April 2024)
“what lesbian porn has done for me”
POETRY Magazine (November 2023)
“I Go Back to Myself, April 2014”
Academy of American Poets (August 2022)
“A Tendency toward Violence” and “Thieves in the Temple”
POETRY Magazine (October 2021)
“Bandwidth”
Academy of American Poets (May 2021)
“Harambe for President (2016 Write-In Ballot)“
The Boston Review (October 2020)
“and though the odds say improbable”
Catapult (July 2020)
“Lodestar”
Nashville Scene (June 2020)
“Emeritus”
Washington Square Review 45 (Spring 2020)
In Their Own Words: “Pickle Goddess” (with short essay)
Poetry Society of America (April 2020)
“Boston Marriage”
The Rumpus (April 7, 2020)
“Love Poem That Ends at Popeyes”
Kenyon Review 42 (March 2020)
“The Art of Cannibalism”
Cherry Tree (Winter 2020)
“Fable”
Crab Orchard Review (June 2019)
“Auto-Immune”
Guernica (Winter 2019)
“Prime Time” and “Her”
The Commuter (Winter 2019)
“failed avoidance of ‘the body’ in a poem”
Poetry Northwest (Fall 2018)
“i too sing america” (Runner-up for the Annual Poetry Contest)
Cosmonauts Avenue (July 2018)
“Recovery” and “hypervigilance”
Rockhurst Review‘s 30th Anniversary Edition
The Making of “Ode To My Penis”
Underbelly Issue 2 (May 2018)
“Scope”
The Rumpus (Enough: Evidence of Origin Theories)
“All the Things That Have Not Happened Between Us” and “400 Heat”
The Breakbeat Poets Volume 2: Black Girl Magic (March 2018)
“Of Unapologetic Black Women and Melania Trump”
Hunger Mountain (March 2018)
“Ode To My Penis”
The Shallow Ends (March 2018)
“Ode to My Body”
The Adroit Journal Issue 24 (January 2018)
“but some men call out the rapists”
Muzzle (December 2017)
“the way i listen to you read poems.”
Foundry Issue 6 (December 2017)
(Check out my interview in this issue here.)
“To the Black Virgin Mary on a Steeple in Greensburg, PA”
Split This Rock’s Poem of The Week, September 1, 2017
“Refraction” (Winner of Meridian’s Borders Contest in Poetry)
Meridian 39 (2017)
“The 400-Meter Heat”
the Southern Quarterly 55.1 (Fall 2017)
The Poetry on Demand Poems (Episodes 2 and 5)
The Versify Podcast (January-June 2017)
“My Therapist Tells Me I Keep Dating My Mother”
Because We Come From Everything, Cave Canem Originally published with “Heirloom Fruit” in IthacaLit (Spring 2016)
“Mythicana” (Winner of the 2016 Poetry Contest)
Naugatuck River Review (Winter/Spring 2017)
“the crazy lady”
African American Review 49.3 (Fall 2016)
“All That Is Happening Has Already Happened”
Indiana Review (38.2)
“A Theory of Intimacy” and “Another Theory of Intimacy”
(Best New Poets nominees) The Account (Spring 2016)
“Sugar”
Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry [an anthology] (2016)
“Injection Ending in a Bible Verse”
Baltimore Review (Winter 2016)
“Macular Conception”
Little Patuxent Review 19 (Winter 2016): Myth
“Selective Reduction” (Pushcart Prize Nominee)
Rove (Fall 2015)
“Veronica”
Vinyl 10 (July 2014)
“Incident”
HEArt (March 2014)
“Confessional”
Rattle 36 (Winter 2011)
“Prenuptial Agreement” and “Inheritance”
The Feminist Wire (April 2011)
Destiny O. Birdsong
Destiny O. Birdsong is a writer whose work has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, Poets & Writers, African American Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received support from Cave Canem, Callaloo, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Pink Door, MacDowell, The Ragdale Foundation, and Tin House. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in 2020. Her debut novel, Nobody’s Magic, was published by Grand Central in 2022, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, was a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and won the 2022 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She earned her BA in English and history from Fisk University, and her MFA in poetry and PhD in English from Vanderbilt University. In 2022, she was selected as the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Rutgers University-Newark and served as a 2022-24 Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She is a contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine.
site photo credits: Melissa Madison Fuller, Destiny O. Birdsong, Tony Gonzalez
Listen
Long Division
originally appeared in Rattle
Auto-Immune
originally appeared in Guernica
Love Poem That Ends at Popeyes
originally appeared in Kenyon Review