Destiny Birdsong

Instructor & Writer
Profile Photo

Destiny O. Birdsong is a Louisiana-born poet, fiction writer, and essayist whose work has either appeared or is forthcoming in Poets & Writers, The Paris Review  Daily, Boston Review,  African American Review, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in October 2020, and was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection. Her debut novel, Nobody's Magic, is forthcoming from Grand Central in February 2022. She earned both her MFA and PhD from Vanderbilt University.

Classes

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Stories

Cover Photo: This photograph shows Destiny's beautiful pothos plant flourishing in front of a window with the shades drawn.
My Pothos Plant Finally Convinced Me to Write in My Office

Not so long ago, I was a writer who wrote anywhere but at her desk.

Feb 23, 2022
Cover Photo: A hand against  a hand drawn  rainbow
Queerness Gave Me a New Way of Seeing Myself

That afternoon, I learned again something I had known before: that I wasn’t completely straight.

Aug 19, 2021
Cover Photo: An image of a mural of two hands in a rainbow of colors holding one another
When a Friendship Ends But the Love Survives

With the help of all of my friends—my best one included—I’ve gotten better at being my whole self.

Jun 03, 2021
Cover Photo: An image of a healthcare working staring straight into the camera
Surviving Karen Medicine

How do you navigate a healthcare system that wasn’t designed for you?

Feb 18, 2021
Cover Photo: An image of a type writer and hands typing as hot pink flames are ablaze in the background
When There Is No Right Way to Heal

The details of those poems may be his first inkling that I know what he did.

Nov 12, 2020
Cover Photo: illustration of a row of Black women sitting at a deli counter, talking and eating, all wearing bright, bold colors in a variety of patterns
and though the odds say improbable

they ain’t superhuman. ain’t always able / to save the children the men the country or even your silk presses / but whatever they touch. somebody’s good god blesses.

Jul 01, 2020