Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME’s seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Eir debut full length poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second full length poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. They won two chapbook prizes: What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? won Garden Party Collective’s chapbook prize in 2024 and Feminine Morbidity won The Headlight Review’s Chapbook prize judged by Olatunde Osinaike in 2025. You can follow more of Maya’s work at mayawilliamspoet.com