Desiree McCray emerges as a Chicago-born writer, artistic activist, womanist scholar, and prophetic scribe whose work lives at the intersection of race, gender, faith, and culture. She is the author of My Sisters Look Like God: A Womanist Manifesto of Poetry (Abode Press, 2024), Send A Refreshing: Poetic Prayers of an Intercessor (2023), and Hope Among Other Foods: A Concoction of Fat Girl Poetry (2021). Her forthcoming choreopoem, Black Girl, Brown Soul, will be released by Jamii Publishing in 2025, with additional work forthcoming from Foglifter Press.

Desiree’s essays, poems, and reflections appear in Black Feminist Collective, Femme Literati, Genre: Urban Arts, Untenured, Presbyterian Outlook, The Seventh Wave, and more. With a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, Desiree is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, focusing on Public Theology and Creative Writing. Her writing invites truth-telling, healing, and transformation—and she is passionate about equipping others to do the same. Whether through testimony, poetry, or essay, Desiree believes our stories are sacred and powerful tools for liberation.