Richard Siken is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 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...

. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Crush, which won the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition

Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition

The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the first collection of a promising American poet...

 in 2004, and is the editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

 of spork

Spork Press

Spork Press is a small press in Tucson, Arizona edited and constructed by Richard Siken and Drew Burk. Beginning in 2001, it began publishing a quarterly literary magazine called Spork, which is often bound hardback, and which should not be confused with the spork, a novel eating utensil.Spork...

 literary magazine. Siken received a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

, and his book Crush was awarded the Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...

 for "Gay Men's Poetry" in 2005, and the Thom Gunn Award from The Publisher's Triangle. The 1991 death of his boyfriend influenced his writing of the book.

Siken currently lives in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

 and is a full-time social worker.

Awards

"Crush" won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, selected by Louise Gluck

Louise Glück

Louise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet of Hungarian Jewish heritage. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant three years prior in 2000....

. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Thom Gunn Award.

Siken is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, two Arizona Commission on the Arts grants, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

External links

• Review of Crush in The New Hampshire Review
• Profile of Richard Siken from "Poetry" magazine
• Richard Siken reads "Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out" for Apostrophe Cast (apostrophecast.com)