About
Triston Dabney is an Oprah Winfrey Scholar, poet and writer whose work blends personal narrative with broader meditations on identity, heritage, and resilience. His writing has been featured in Obsidian, Breakbread Magazine, The Elevation Review, Heartwood Literary Magazine, and numerous other journals. A two‑time Best of the Net nominee and 2025 Pushcart Prize nominee, he has been awarded scholarships from Sphinx Moth Press, the Hudson Valley Writers Center, and the Robert Hayden Scholarship at the University of Stockton. He is also a 2025 Sundress Press Artist Resident and a finalist for both the Button Poetry and Full House Literary chapbook competitions. His debut collection, Moments as They Are, will be published by Fernwood Press in 2026.
Featured Work
Moments as They Are
Moments as They Are is a luminous debut poetry collection by Triston Dabney that bears witness to the sacredness of everyday life. Told through the arc of Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, and Blessing, these poems navigate memory, queerness, Black cultural inheritance, grief, love, and spiritual becoming.
With tenderness and clarity, Dabney invites readers into moments that might otherwise go unnoticed: a grandmother’s hands, the quiet ache of masculinity, the rituals of community, the journey of self-recognition. Each poem serves as a small altar, honoring what it means to carry light even in the midst of loss.
Part testimony, part benediction, Moments as They Are is a meditation on survival, identity, and the radical act of choosing joy. In language that is both intimate and expansive, Dabney offers readers not just poems, but blessings—reminders that every ordinary moment holds extraordinary grace.
Other Works
Awards and Recognition
- Oprah Winfrey Scholar
