Poetry. African American Studies. "Just when contemporary poetry seems headed for a repetitive rut of slickly confessional, self-indulgent drivel, Curtis Crisler's fierce and unapologetic stanzas shatter a window to let the air in. This is biting, innovative work that refuses to allow the reader to turn away. If you need any proof that poetry still has a future, look here. Here is the sign we've been waiting for"--Patricia Smith.

Author Hometown: FORT WAYNE, IN USA



About the author: Curtis L. Crisler is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne. His newest book is PULLING SCABS (Willow Books/Aquarius Press, 2009). He won the 2008 Keyhole Chapbook Award for Spill. His book Tough Boy Sonatas was published in 2007, and is also on Recorded Books. Crisler has been published in Crab Orchard Review, Reverie, The Ninth Letter, African American Review, The Drunken Boat, The Amistad, and anthologies such as Our Common Suffering: Anthology of Poets in Memoriam 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, Arts Kaleidoscope Presents: Art & Poems, Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora, Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami, and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. Crisler was a 2009 recipient of The Eric Hoffer Award for Tough Boy Sonatas, as well as a recipient of an Indiana Arts Commission's Individual Artist Project Grant, an artist at Soul Mountain Retreat, an artist at SAAW, and an artist for Words on the Go. Crisler is also a Cave Canem Fellow.

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