W. J. Lofton

W.J. Lofton, a man with locs in a sweater, sits in a cushioned chair in his backyard.

Photo by Wulf Bradley

W.J. Lofton is a Black Queer Southern poet and multimodal artist. He is the author of boy maybe (Beacon Press, 2025) and A Garden for Black Boys Between the Stages of Soil and Stardust (published by the author, 2018). A recipient of Ava DuVernay’s LEAP Grant, Lofton is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and an Emory University Arts & Social Justice fellowship. 

Lofton’s poetry, essays, and film work have appeared on the Academy of American Poets site and in the American Poets magazine, Obsidian, Scalawag, TIME, the books No Justice, No Peace and Prose to the People, and film festivals nationwide. His work is driven by a sustained concern with liberation and its lived manifestations—the personal, the political, and the collective.

Lofton lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he co-curates Rebellion: A Writing Salon at For Keeps Books.

  • Audio

    W.J. Lofton vs. Grief

    On today’s episode of VS, Ajanae and Brittany interview W.J. Lofton. Join them as they discuss how they handle failure within their process, grief as a form of generosity, queer intimacy, spiritual expansion, and the process of unlearning harmful beliefs.