Conyer Clayton is a queer writer and editor from Louisville living in Ottawa. They are the author of three full-length poetry collections and ten poetry chapbooks, including But the sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves. (winner of the Archibald Lampman Award) and We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite (winner of the City of Ottawa Book Award).
At MacDowell, Clayton completed an initial draft of their first novel, and began revisions. The novel tells an uncanny and non-linear story of a mother and son set in the U.S.A. South, exploring themes of caretaking and illness, isolation and queerness, grief and memory. Prior chapters from the first draft earned them a 2025 Tin House Summer Scholarship and a 2025 Research and Creation Grant from the Canada Council of the Arts. Clayton also completed edits on their third book of poetry, the lake-shaped excuse, forthcoming with Buckrider Books in fall 2026.
Portrait by Curtis Perry
