Dior J. Stephens (they/he) is a Black, queer poet, editor, and educator. They are the author of CRUEL/CRUEL (Nightboat, 2023) and ATOMIC i (Nightboat, 2027), winner of the 2026 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. A Cave Canem, Sewanee, and Lambda Literary fellow, Dior was recently a 2026 Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. They serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Foglifter Journal & Press, a nationally recognized LGBTQ+ literary journal and press. Dior holds a PhD in Philosophy and Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati (2025), an MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts, and a BA in Theater from Columbia College Chicago. They live in Atlanta, Georgia.