Christopher Janke

Christopher Janke's first book, Structure of the Embryonic Rat Brain, won the Fence Modern Poets Series prize. His poems have been published in Harper's, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, A Public Space, Field, Forklift Ohio, Conduit, and dozens of other journals.

He fixes laundry machines, tends bar, and hosts a yearly lost-and-found fashion show on 3rd Street in Turners Falls, Mass. Across the river in Greenfield, he stacks wood, cooks, writes poems, and edits manuscripts for Slope Editions, where he is VP and Senior Editor.

He has taught creative writing and literature at The University of Hartford and UMass Amherst, among other schools. In Fall 2010, he served as Chester College of New England's Visiting Writer in Residence.

-"of the of of the of" a palimpsest of 9 poems printed on vellum, mounted on clear acrylic and luaun in a 3x3 grid, and layered with translucent visual reinterpretations of the work presented in layered maps (currently in production)

-35 posthumous love poems with translations (selections under consideration at various journals)

Manuscripts under consideration:
-psalterium, a MS of 50 short poems. Selections published in A Public Space, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, and elsewhere. Finalist for the National Poetry Series 2008, 2010, 2011.

-blepharism, a 90-page poem around the spasm of an eyelid. Selections published in Bateau, Forklift Ohio, Conduit, Tarpaulin Sky, and elsewhere. Finalist and semi-finalist for the CSU prize.

posthumous love poems and translations