Kevin Simmonds is a writer, musician and filmmaker originally from New Orleans. His books include the poetry collections Bend to it (Salmon Poetry, 2014) and Mad for Meat (Salmon Poetry, 2011), and two edited works: the poetry anthology Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2011) and the late poet Carrie Allen McCray's Ota Benga under My Mother's Roof (University of South Carolina Press, 2012). He wrote the music for the Emmy Award-winning documentary Hope: Living & Loving with HIV in Jamaica and Voices of Haiti: A Post-Quake Odyssey in Verse, both commissioned by the Pulitzer Center. His genre-defying films, including Ass, feti(sh)ame, Singing Whitman, and Trace, have screened internationally. He divides his time between Brooklyn, San Francisco and Japan.