Marlanda Dekine

Marlanda Dekine is a queer, freshwater Gullah descendant who writes poems in South Carolina. A licensed social worker, she is the author of Thresh & Hold, winner of the New Southern Voices Poetry Prize from Hub City Press. She is also the author and recording artist of I am from a punch & a kiss. A socially-engaged practitioner, Dekine is the first Poet Laureate of Georgetown County Libraries and an alumnus of the Obsidian Foundation UK.

Through poetry and facilitated dialogue, Dekine is a listener who guides people and communities into the depths of cultural transformation. Her most important work has been alongside and as an advocate with children who survived severe abuse, offering poetry workshops to unsheltered people, and listening to people and families living with mental illness.

A dynamic performer, a few of her honors include Queen of the South Poetry Slam Champion, an Individual Artist Fellowship in Spoken Word and Slam Poetry, and Co-Recipient of the Mary L. Thomas Award for Civic Engagement. Dekine’s poetry has appeared in Poem-a-Day, Orion, Poetry, Callaloo, Oxford American, and other journals, and is anthologized in This Is the Honey and What Things Cost. Dekine is the founder of Dekine Cultural Strategies and Speaking Down Barriers.

Dekine will begin studies toward an MDiv at Union Theological Seminary in the Fall of 2026. She currently holds an MFA in Poetry from Converse University, an MSW from the University of South Carolina, and a B.A. in Psychology from Furman University.