Justin Phillip Reed is an American writer and amateur bass guitarist. His preoccupations include horror cinema, ideological failure, and uses of the grotesque. His most recent book, the hybrid collection With Bloom Upon Them and Also with Blood: A Horror Miscellany, was released on Halloween 2023 and deemed a “f—ing good time” by Gulf Coast. He previously authored the poetry collections, The Malevolent Volume (winner of CLMP’s 2021 Firecracker Award for Poetry, finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, a New York Times New and Noteworthy title, and one of NPR’s Favorite Reads of 2020) and Indecency (winner of the 2018 National Book Award in Poetry, winner of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and finalist for the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award). Born and raised in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, he participates in alternative rock music cultures, ogles Toyota Tacomas, and enjoys smelling like outside. He makes d-grade music under the moniker “wurstbrat,” writes online for the Nu Metal Agenda, and his favorite band is Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile. He is currently Writer-in-Residence at Clemson University, where he teaches creative writing and organizes public workshops.

Collections

Selected prose

The Nu Metal Agenda
“Chat Pile Debut ‘Masc,’ Disembowel Themselves for the Team Again”

Literary Hub
“Leisure, Labor, Reticence, Violence”

Oxford American
“The Black Girl Best Friends at the Survivors Party”

ANMLY
“Inadequate Vessels; or Simone White says, ‘A poem that doesn’t have its own mind frightens me.’”

Bennington Review
“Logic & Optics: Gothika (2003)”
& “Awaiting Acknowledgement: Alien3 (1992)”

Poetry Foundation
“In My Defense, Monsters,” Parts 1-4

Catapult
“Killing Like They Do in the Movies”
selected by Jonathan Franzen
for Best American Essays 2016

Catapult
"Melancholia, Death Motion, and the Makings of Marilyn Manson"

The Rumpus
 "The Double Agency of Will Smith in Sci-Fi"

Selected poetry

Oxford American “new novel”

The Adroit Journal “Insidious (2010)”
& “Black Swan (2010)”

The Columbia Review “The Truth of the Thing”

Cotton Xenomorph “An American Werewolf in London (1981)”

Flypaper Lit “So we got three things going. We got some grape jelly, some hominy grits, and an extension cord.” & 1 more

Foundry “When I Was a Man”

Guernica “The Hang-Up”

Jewish Currents “Thank god your horrors outweigh your manners.”

PEN America “The Bastard's Crown” & 1 more

Poetry “When I Was a Poet” & 2 more

The Offing “When I Am Queen”

The Rumpus “Leaves of Grass”

The Shade Journal “Head of Medusa” & 1 more

FEATURES & Interviews

New Delta Review Running, Hiding, Fighting

St. Louis Public Radio Cut & Paste

The Steer Episode 3

Literary Hub Meet National Book Award Finalist Justin Phillip Reed

St. Louis Magazine "Girl, I guess there's glamour in it"

Poetry Society of America In Their Own Words: On "Consent"

The Shade Journal Shade of the Week: A Blues A Blues A Blues

Howlarium Living Your Truth: A Conversation with Justin Phillip Reed

Ploughshares Blog What Does Your Liberation Look Like?: In Conversation with Liz Mputu and Justin Phillip Reed

Howlarium Date a Creator