Christopher Bakken an American poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, translator, and professor at Allegheny College

Allegheny College

Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the town of Meadville. Founded in 1815, the college has about 2,100 undergraduate students.-Early history:...

.

He graduated from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 with an M.F.A., and from University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. He was a Fulbright Scholar in American Studies at the University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest

The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...

 in 2008.

His work appeared in Boulevard, Feta Review, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, Lyric, Michigan Quarterly Review, Mid-American Review, Paris Review, Parnassus, Raritan, Southwest Review, and Western Humanities Review.
His burger recipe won a Food & Wine contest. Recently, his culinary repertoire has expanded to encompass Caribbean and West African influences.

Awards

• 2005 Willis Barnstone Translation Prize
  Willis Barnstone Translation Prize
  The Willis Barnstone Translation Prize is an annual award given to an exceptional translation of a poem from any language into English. The prize was inaugurated in 2002 by the University of Evansville under the direction of William Baer and has been presented annually since 2003. The award is...
  
  
• 2006 Helen C. Smith Memorial Prize by the Texas Institute of Letters
• 2001 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
  T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University)
  The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is awarded annually by Truman State University, which is a United States university located in Missouri. It is given "for the best unpublished book-length collection of poetry in English, in honor of native Missourian T. S. Eliot’s considerable intellectual and...
  
  

Works

• "Some Things Along Strada C.A. Rosetti", Parnassus: Poetry in Review via Poetry Daily. 2009.
• "Portrait Detail, with Pear", AGNI 2006

Books

• Goat Funeral Sheep Meadow Press, 2006, ISBN 9781931357388
• After Greece Truman State University Press, 2001, ISBN 9781931112000

Influences/Like Voices

• Constantine Cavafy
• Wallace Stevens
• Mark Doty
• Phil Collins
• Henri Cole
• Walt Whitman

Translations

• The Lions’ Gate: Selected Poems of Titos Patrikios, Translated Christopher Bakken, Roula Konsolaki, Truman State University Press, 2006, ISBN 9781931112642

Anthologies

• Kindled Terraces: American Poets in Greece, Truman State University Press, 2004. ISBN 1931112371
• "Ohio Elegy", Poets against the War, Editors Sam Hamill, Sally Anderson, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003, ISBN 9781560255390
• "Home Thoughts, from Abroad", Under the rock umbrella: contemporary American poets, 1951-1977, Editor William J. Walsh, Mercer University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780881460476

Review

If Bakken can, in the future, stay put in his resplendent Hellenic-inflected imagination for a good while, and avoid the art museum and his personal library, he may just write a book with the smell, taste, and texture of ambrosia. Goat Funeral isn’t quite that, but it’s not chopped liver, either.

External links

• "#3 - Christopher Bakken", First Book Interviews, October 13, 2008
• Author's website
• Author's blog profile
• Author's twitter