Bryan Byrdlong is a Black writer from Chicago, Illinois. In high school, he was part of Chicago’s Louder than a Bomb poetry slam competition. He graduated from Vanderbilt University where he received an undergraduate English/Creative Writing degree. He has been published in the Nashville Review, Apogee Journal, Pleiades Magazine, and the Kenyon Review. Most recently, he is the Boulevard Magazine 2020 Contest for Emerging Poets winner. He is a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan and a PhD student in Creative Writing and Literature Student at USC.