Andrea Gibson
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Andrea Gibson

Poet & Activist

b. August 13, 1975
d. July 14, 2025

“In the end I want my heart to be covered in stretch marks.”

Andrea Gibson was an award-winning poet and activist whose work explored themes such as politics, gender identity, love, and trauma. Gibson is the subject of the 2025 documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light.”

Born in Calais, Maine, to conservative Baptist parents, Gibson identified as genderqueer and used they/them pronouns. They began writing poetry as a child.

Gibson attended Saint Joseph’s College of Maine on a basketball scholarship and graduated with an English degree in 1997. They moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1999, where they worked as a Montessori school teacher.

After attending an open mic in Denver, Gibson was inspired to become a spoken-word poet. They left teaching in 2005 to pursue the art form full-time. In 2008, Gibson won the inaugural Women of the World Poetry Slam in Detroit, Michigan, and went on to compete in numerous performance poetry competitions, winning the Denver Grand Slam Championship four times.

Gibson published multiple poetry collections and released seven spoken-word albums. Their first published book, “Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns” (2008), helped establish them as a leading voice in the spoken-word genre. Their 2018 collection, “Lord of the Butterflies,” earned several poetry category prizes, including an Independent Publisher’s Book Award and an Eric Hoffer Book Award.

As an activist, Gibson focused on LGBTQ+ issues, gun reform, and patients’ rights. Among other efforts, they performed their poem “America, Reloading” (with music by Ani DiFranco) on video to prompt action against gun violence, and partnered with Power to the Patients, a nationwide movement to push for hospital pricing transparency.

In 2021, Gibson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Their collection, “You Better Be Lightning” (2021), which covers issues from queerness to healing and mortality, earned another Independent Publisher’s Award for poetry in 2022 and the Feathered Quill Book Award for Poetry in 2023, among others.

In 2023, Governor Jared Polis named Gibson the poet laureate of Colorado. Gibson received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship the following year.

After nearly a decade together, Gibson married fellow poet Megan Falley in 2022. The documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” chronicles Gibson’s life and the couple’s struggle with Gibson’s terminal diagnosis. Premiering at Sundance in January 2025, the film earned numerous awards, along with an Oscar nomination. Gibson’s love song for Megan, “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet,” is featured in the film and performed by Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. Six months after the film’s release, Gibson died at home in Longmont, Colorado.