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Recent News
Cristin is awarded the 2013 Amy Clampitt Residency
After years of applying, Cristin is thrilled to have been awarded the 2013 Amy Clampitt Residency. The residency was created to “benefit poetry and the literary arts by converting Amy Clampitt’s prior residence into a facility which would provide for a place to foster the study and promotion of poetry and/or a poet in residence.” As the 2013 resident, Cristin will spend six months (Feb – Aug 2013) living and writing in a “charming, fully furnished, 3-bedroom, 2-story house in Stockbridge, MA.” The residency is provided free of charge, requires no obligations from the poet other than a single public reading, and provides a generous monthly stipend as well. Cristin is hugely humbled by this generous and affirming opportunity, and is grateful for the time and focus this residency will allow. For more information on the Amy Clampitt Residency, please click here.
Cristin to Attend AWP 2012 Conference in Chicago (Feb 29-March3)
Cristin is thrilled to be attending the 2012 AWP Conference in Chicago. In addition to helping man the Write Bloody Publishing table (making its AWP debut), she will able to speaking on a panel about the evolution on the slam movement on Friday March 2 at 3pm (click here for more info). That night, Cristin will be performing with other WB authors — including Derrick Brown, Anis Mojgani, Robbie Q. Telfer and Laura Yes Yes among others — at the Write Bloody AWP showcase. The show starts at 9:30 PM at Elastic Arts (2830 N Milwaukee). For more information or to RVSP on FB, click here. Please check back for additional information on performances, as this information is confirmed.
About
Short Bio: Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is the author of five books of poetry (Dear Future Boyfriend, Hot Teen Slut, Working Class Represent, Oh, Terrible Youth and Everything is Everything) as well as the nonfiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, which Billy Collins wrote “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” Her recent awards include the ArtsEdge Writer-In-Residency at the University of Pennsylvania (2010-2011), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (2011) and the Amy Clampitt Residency (2013).
For the truly curious, here’s the longer story:
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz was born and raised in Philadelphia. In 1996, she graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia, and moved to New York City to attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was a sophomore at NYU when she was first introduced to poetry slams by her classmate, Beau Sia. In 1998, Cristin co-founded the NYC-Urbana Poetry Slam, a weekly reading series dedicated to showcasing the most innovative voices in poetry. NYC-Urbana has captured the National Slam Championship title three times and won the first ever Group Piece Nationals, which celebrates multi-voice poems. The NYC-Urbana Poet Slam is still held weekly at NYC’s famed Bowery Poetry Club.
After college, Cristin worked as an editor for the “Adult” section for online portal About.com (serving as inspiration for her book, Hot Teen Slut), slung coffee as the founding cafe manager for the Bowery Poetry Club and served as a rights manager at the Artists Rights Society.
In July 2010, she was named the 2010-2011 ArtsEdge Writer-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, where she spent the year researching and writing a book on Thomas Dent Mütter, founder of the Philadelphia’s (in)famous Mütter Museum. It was during this residency year that she was also awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.
Aptowicz currently is living in Austin, TX, with her partner, poet Shappy Seasholtz, and their two rescue two dachshunds: a nine-pound chocolate wire-haired named Max Bialystock and an eight-pound silver dapple short-haired named Alvy Singer.
Cristin continues to perform and lecture internationally & nationally, including residencies with or performances at the Sydney Opera House, the Gasworks Art Complex (Melbourne Australia), Joe’s Pub (at NYC’s Public Theatre), the Largo Theatre (Los Angeles) and universities & colleges, such Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College and Amhearst College, among many others. Her poetry and non-fiction has been published in various journals, including Rattle, McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies, Pank, La Petite Zine, decomP, Umbrella, The Other Journal, Danse Macabre, Conduit, Barrelhouse and Monkeybicycle, among others…
Her most recent awards include a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and the 2013 Amy Clampitt Residency.
For more information on forthcoming gigs, recent press and/or her schedule of performances, please see here or write aptowicz@yahoo.com.
