Steven Reigns

• Name — Steven Reigns • Born — 11 November 1975 • Birthplace — St. Louis, Missouri, US • Education — The University of South Florida Antioch University • Occupation — Poet, educator • Period — 21st century • Genre — poetry • Notable Works — A Quilt For David, Outliving Michael, Inheritance, The Gay Rub • Awards — Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist in Residency Grant for 2007, 2009, 2011-2015; City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship 2020;

Reigns grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. From an early age, he sought refuge from a troubled home life in local libraries where he discovered the writers who would have a huge impact on his own work: Sapphire, Essex Hemphill, Dorothy Allison, Edmund White, Anaïs Nin, Amy Scholder, John Preston and Audre Lorde.

Reigns graduated from the University of South Florida, where he wrote a bi-monthly column for TLW magazine, with a degree in Creative Writing. He also has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University. Reigns is a fourteen-time recipient of the Los Angeles County Department of Cultural Affairs' Artist in Residency Grant. He was elected as West Hollywood's inaugural City Poet for a two-year term beginning in October 2014. He was selected as "Someone to Watch in 2015" by The Advocate Magazine. Reigns was selected for a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship in 2020.

Reigns has cited public libraries and librarians as a major influence on his development as an artist and activist. He has campaigned in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer programming in libraries. In 2004 he organized 'Loving in Fear', an LGBTQ literary event in response to Hillsborough County's lack of gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer programming. He recounted the experience in a Watermark Magazine article about National Library Week. He was the first to speak to the commissioners about their discriminatory policy at the library. He was Literary Director for The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Center of Tampa for two years. Reigns has been keynote speaker at Rollins College, Stonewall Library, and at the American Library Associations Annual Breakfast. He facilitates the monthly Lambda Literary Foundation Book Club.

Reigns worked as a certified (in Florida and California) HIV test counselor for over 10 years, testing more than 9000 people. He contributed to a panel with Los Angeles County on standards of care for HIV. In 2011, he ran a support group that utilized film as a projective tool at Being Alive. In 2012, he published an essay in Frontiers Magazine on the need for new AIDS narratives in cinema and literature. He published a poem about the so-called AIDS "Patient Zero" Gaëtan Dugas and in 2018 hosted an event at West Hollywood Council Chambers discussing Dugas’ legacy. Reigns participated in a staged conversation about Keith Haring with Ann Magnuson at The Broad for World AIDS Day 2022. In 2025, Reigns participated in the 25th Annual Paul Andrew Starke Warrior Awards, honoring outstanding employees and volunteers from West Hollywood agencies that provide HIV/AIDS and substance abuse prevention and care services.

Reigns created The Gay Rub, a participatory art project in 2011 and has curated the project ever since. The Gay Rub is a collection of rubbings taken from historically significant LGBTQ public markers, memorials, and monuments. Participants from around the world contribute rubbings of markers from their home city, along with commentary. There are currently more than 200 rubbings in the collection, which has toured major universities. The collection is the subject of The Gay Rub: A Documentary (2018) by Michael J. Saul.

Reigns has participated in several collaborative online projects, such as Heather Champs' Mirror Project and Anni Holm's Getting My Name Out There. He was also a character in Hilary Goldberg's In The Spotlight. His artwork has been shown in galleries throughout the U.S.A including at The Advocate gallery part of Rainbow Gobblins exhibit in May 2007. From 2007 to 2014, Reigns undertook a 7 years living/art project under the mentorship of Linda Montano, S(t)even Years.

Outliving Michael (Moontide Press, 2025) ISBN 1957799374 Outliving Michael is a poetry collection exploring the author's friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS in 2000. The work examines their intergenerational relationship, mentorship in gay life, and artistic development through the 1990s. Blending memoir and poetry, it addresses themes of grief, friendship, and the long-term impact of personal connections within the context of the AIDS crisis that claimed a generation of gay men. Outliving Michael received the 'Best in Literature' 2025 Poz Award.

A Quilt for David (City Lights Books, 2021) ISBN 9780872868816 A Quilt For David explores the life of Florida dentist David J. Acer, who in 1990 was accused of infecting a patient (Kimberly Bergalis) with HIV. Reigns describes the work as “investigative poetry” as it is based on extensive research, conducted between 2012 and 2020, into Acer’s life and death, including interviews with those who knew him, as it played out against the AIDS hysteria of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In his poetry, Reigns challenges the media narrative of the time, which was that Acer infected his patients deliberately.

• Reigns wrote an article in defense of transgender writer and activist Kate Bornstein • Reigns' short storyOn These Sheets is included in the Foolish Hearts anthology a Rainbow Book Finalist Reigns' papers are held by the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries.

Reigns is an Anaïs Nin scholar and has presented at The Sapphire Symposium. He is President of the Board of the Anaïs Nin Foundation.

Reigns discovered Nin’s writing at the age of sixteen and her work has had a profound influence on his career. In February 2008, Reigns organized ‘Anaïs Nin@105’ at the Hammer Museum. Reigns said, "Nin bonded and formed very deep friendships with women and men decades younger than her. Some of them are still living in Los Angeles and I thought it'd be wonderful to have them share their experiences with (Nin)." Electronic musician Bebe Barron, who was championed by Nin early in her career, made her last public appearance at ‘Anaïs Nin@105’. Reigns spoke at Barron's memorial. Reigns combed through Nin's original diaries to investigate the validity of Bern Porter's claims of his sexual relationship in the 1930s with Anaïs Nin, which were published as a series of interviews in the 1990s. Reigns' essay refuting Porter's claims, Bern Porter's Wild Sexual Life with Anais Nin or Wild Imaginings? was published in Café in Space and Thinking of Anaïs Nin. Reigns' poem 'Anaïs Nin Never Bought a Car' was published in Divining Divas: 100 Gay Poets on Their Muses (2012). Reigns facilitated the 2010 re-release of a long out-of-circulation audio book by Nin. Reigns loaned his rare 1949 pink vinyl version of Nin reading her prose poem House of Incest, recorded by Louis and Bebe Barron, to their son Adam Barron. Adam Barron used it as the basis for a CD release. Reigns owns a large collection of Nin memorabilia and ephemera, including a copy of Marcel Proust's Albertine disparue, once owned by Nin. In the book are lines underlined by Henry Miller with notes written in the margin by both Nin and Miller. Reigns organized and curated Anais Nin's Influence: Women who Knew Nin Talk About her Writing, Her Life and Their Friendship with Her at the West Hollywood Library in 2015. Reigns said of Nin and the event: "The struggles of life, love, and artistry Nin documented in detail daily. Her life and writings are more relevant now than ever. Hearing firsthand from women who knew Nin is an exceptional experience." In January 2016, Reigns co-produced an event at Antioch University Santa Barbara, The Allure of Anaïs Nin. In 2025, Reigns discovered and rescued an archive of Nin's papers and possessions. The items were stored in cardboard boxes in a metal container on a hillside vulnerable to fires and earthquakes. Shortly after he moved the materials to safe storage, the area was indeed ravaged by fire.