Junious Ward

Junious 'Jay' Ward is an Emmy nominated poet and teaching artist living in Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte's inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, a 2026 recipient of the Mary Frances Hobson Prize, and current Writer in Residence for Charlotte Lit. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Watering Hole and Tin House Winter Workshop. His work can be found in Columbia Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal and elsewhere.

Guest Speaker:

• UNC Charlotte
• Hofstra University
• National Council for Black Studies
• North Carolina English Teachers Association
• South Carolina Conference for Teachers of English
• Teach for America
• James River Writers Conference

Workshops:

• The Watering Hole 2024 Winter Retreat
• Hofstra University
• Kenyon College
• Charlotte Main Library
• Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture
• One Word Poetry Festival
• North Carolina Writers Network Fall Conference
• Button Poetry 

Honors:

• 2022 Charlotte Inaugural Poet Laureate
• 2019 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion
• 2018 National Poetry Slam Champion
• 2016 Write Bloody Finalist
• 2016 Queen City Awards Poet of the Year