Biography
Presenting What’s so wrong with a pity party anyway?
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine’s poet laureate from July 2021 to July 2024. Maya’s full length poetry collections were nominated for a New England Book Award and a Maine Literary Award. Eir chapbook What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? won Garden Party Collective’s chapbook prize. They are also a recipient of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize from the Maine Humanities Council. Follow her work at mayawilliamspoet.com