About

I’m Dereka Meshae Smith. I am a human who just so happens to live many lives at once. A dragon with a heart of gold, a vampiress, a writer, a spiritualist channeling words from a past life as old as the first poet—Enheduanna, and a little girl who grows limbs out of my throat.

A Mississippi-born writer writing from the underbelly of the South. My work unspools memory, black girlhood, and grief with language that bites back and chews slow. Currently I’m working on my debut collection, that writes toward the haunting, the holy, and the heavy weight of being a Black girl raised in the MS Delta – a place that never asked me to bloom.

So far, my poems have appeared in Black Horse Review, Rabbit’s Foot Magazine, Viewless Wings and other lit mags.

Visit my website to learn more about me and see more of my work.