G. Winston James is a Jamaican-born poet, short fiction writer, essayist and editor. He is the founder and editor of Top Pen Press, which publishes work that illuminates, confronts and perplexes perceptions of queer people of color. A former fellow of the Millay Colony for the Arts, he holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. In 2010 his short fiction collection, Shaming the Devil: Collected Short Stories, was selected a Finalist publication in the categories of “Debut Fiction” for the 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards and “LGBT Fiction” for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards.  He is also the author of the poetry collection The Damaged Good: Poems Around Love and the Lambda Literary Award finalist collection Lyric: Poems Along a Broken Road.

His poetry also appears in numerous anthologies and publications, including Mary: A Literary Quarterly; Black Ivy: A Literary and Visual Arts Magazine; Bloom Magazine: Queer Fiction, Art, Poetry and More; Kuumba: A Poetry Journal for Black People in the Life; Milking Black Bull: 11 Black Gay Poets; The Nubian Gallery; Role Call:  A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art; and the Lambda Literary Award winning anthologies, Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men’s Writing, 1979 to the Present; Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS, and The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets.

His fiction, essays and interviews can also be found in In the Vale of Cashmere;  Love, Christopher Street: Reflections of New York City; For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home; Mighty Real: An Anthology of African-American Same Gender Loving Writing; Best Gay Stories 2010; Carry the Word:  A Bibliography of Black LGBTQ Books; The Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica; Brooklyn Review; Think Again; Callaloo: A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters; Fighting Words: Personal Essays by Black Gay Men; His 2: Brilliant New Fiction by Gay Writers; Adult Learning and Development: Multicultural Stories; The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica; Shade: An Anthology of Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent; and Waves: An Anthology of New Gay Fiction.

He has collaborated with choreographers Tyrone Aiken, Loris Anthony Beckles, Ronald K. Brown, Trébien Pollard and André Tyson and has read and performed at diverse venues and events including the American Dance Festival, Columbia University, Dance Theater Workshop, EXIT Festival International (Créteil, France), George Mason University, Harvey Milk High School, Hunter College of the City University of New York, the Joyce Theater, Nuyorican Poets Café, Pitzer College, Rowland Hall Upper School, Rutgers University, and The Smithsonian Institution among other national and international venues.

A former Executive Director of the Other Countries Black Gay Expression artists’ collective, he was a founding organizer and board member of Fire & Ink: A Writers Festival for GLBT People of African Descent.  James is also co-editor of the historic anthologies, Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing and the Lambda Literary Award finalist publication Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity.