Who is Desiree McCray?
Professor Desiree McCray
Professor of English, Prairie State College
Public Intellectual | Poet-Theologian | Educator
Professor Desiree McCray is a Professor of English at Prairie State College and a public intellectual whose work lives at the intersection of ancestral memory, faith, identity, language, and justice. In the classroom, she teaches first-year composition and literature with a pedagogy rooted in culturally responsive, trauma-informed care, critical inquiry, and creative expression. She helps students discover their voices and claim their place as thinkers and writers.
Armed with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri–Columbia, Professor McCray earned her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. A poet-theologian, award-winning preacher, and emerging womanist scholar, she is pursuing her Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Creative Writing and Public Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Her current doctoral project, Love Underway, is a collection of poetry that explores the sacred dimensions of love as transformation—an active, womanist ethic, an embodied praxis, and the seedbed of belonging. Her writing invites readers into radical empathy, vulnerable reflection, and courageous truth-telling.
Backed by poetry fellowships from VONA and Roots. Wounds. Words., McCray is the author of four poetry collections: Black Girl, Brown Soul: Africana Americana Poetry (Jamii Publishing, 2025), My Sisters Look Like God: A Womanist Manifesto of Poetry (Abode Press, 2024), Send A Refreshing: Poetic Prayers of an Intercessor (2023), and Hope Among Other Foods: A Concoction of Fat Girl Poetry (2020). Her work has been published in Genre: Urban Arts, Black Feminist Collective, Presbyterian Outlook, Untenured, The Seventh Wave, Foglifter Press, and elsewhere.
As a speaker, teacher, and writer, Professor McCray bridges the academy, the church, and the wider public—bringing her sacred words to the podium, the pulpit, the page, and the pew. Her work gives language to the struggles, joys, and hopes of everyday life. She is animated by a deep belief: our words possess the power to heal, challenge, inspire, disrupt, and liberate.
What does Desiree McCray write?
“Brown Girl, Black Soul” is a captivating book that invites readers on a profound journey of self-discovery, resilience, and celebration of unapologetic Blackness. Through a collection of heartfelt, introspective, and evocative poems, the book explores the multifaceted experiences of a woman of faith and fervor navigating the world with miraculous, melanated skin and a sweet spirit overflowing with ancestral dreams.
Hope Among Other Foods: a concoction of fat girl poetry by Desiree McCray has ranging topics of racial marginalization, body, image, natural hair, navigating relationships, and womanhood. Feeding the soul while echoing a black religious experience, these words form a grand anthem of self-love, self-recognition, and self-definition.
“Passionate”
Desiree writes with feeling and emotion-anon
“Inspiring”
Her words inspire me and make me want to write- anon
“She has a way with words”
Her magical poetry speaks for itself
The art of prayer simply requires a conversation with God. In Send A Refreshing: Poetic Prayers of an Intercessor, you will find prayers that refresh the souls, restore the spirit, and renew the mind. Send A Refreshing covers prayer points of rejection and doubt; transformation and transition; healing, revival and so much more. In a true prophetic and poetic form, McCray’s prayers are forged out of a real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. McCray’s lyrical writing calls believers to the deep end, to foster intimacy with God. Rich in theology, Send A Refreshing can be used for both public worship and private time with the Creator.
“My Sisters Look Like God” transcends the boundaries of my previous writings by intricately weaving together the threads of an inherited faith, identity, and womanhood, creating a seamless narrative that resonates with a more nuanced perspective. In some ways, this book is a departure from the familiar, amplifying the voices of my ancestors and celebrating the richness of cultural heritage in ways I never have explored before. The themes of body positivity and faith, which have been through lines in my previous works, remain and take center stage alongside an unapologetic admiration of black identity. “My Sisters Look Like God” manifests as a testament to growth, both personally and artistically, as it pushes boundaries and expands the horizons of my literary exploration. I believe readers will find this collection to be a vibrant and authentic reflection of intersectional layers that shape the human condition. I hope readers will find resonance in these pages, fostering empathy, understanding, and a shared celebration of our dynamic, multifaceted identities.
What’s my mission?
To heal, inspire, educate, liberate, and change the world through sharing a few words at a time.
“All that you touch
― Octavia E. Butler
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God
is Change.”
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