Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently An Optimism (Persea Books, 2026), as well as The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Duke University Press, 2022), which was awarded the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies and the Alan Bray Memorial Book Award. His most recent project, Time Also Will Make It Interesting (Nightboat, 2026), is an edited volume of the journals of the trans writer/painter Red Jordan Arobateau. Presently, Awkward-Rich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.