bio:COMING OUT JANUARY 2010
Cristin is now booking her 2010 performances!
If you are interested in bringing Cristin
to your performance space, festival or college
please inquire about her availability by writing bookings@aptowicz.com !
For the latest news on Cristin,
please check out her news page here
Here the nitty-gritty: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is a New York City-based poet and author. Founder and host of the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship venue, NYC-Urbana, Cristin is the author of five books of poetry, including Everything is Everything (Write Bloody Press, 2010), as well as the author of Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008), 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." The Washington Post also named it one of five Notable Books on Exploring Poetry in 2008 (4/20/08) and it was recommended by both Library Journal (June 2008) and School Library Journal (April 2008) who wrote, "Aptowicz uses anecdotes, stories, and interviews to chronicle the life of this unique art form. The general public holds an image of an aggressive, in-your-face poet shouting words on stage, but the author shows a movement with surprising levels of depth and diversity."
For those truly Cristin-curious, the longer story:
On a chilly November day in 1978, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz was born: the unholy product of a municipal government worker -- her father, Bruce Aptowicz, who was a manager for over 30 years at the Philadelphia Water Department -- and a federal government worker -- her mother Maureen O'Keefe Aptowicz, who continues to work for the IRS.
Cristin is the youngest of three children, and the only non-scientist of the bunch. Her older sister, Caitlin, received her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, and currently works at Nature magazine. Her older brother, Kevin, received his PhD in Optical Engineering at Yale and is currently a professor at West Chester University. Sister-in-Law Katie (a Yale-educated lawyer working in the field of gay civil rights) and Brother-in-Law Leo (a Harvard educated MD who works in the field of pediatrics) round off this overly brainy bunch.
Cristin attended Central High of Philadelphia, where served managing editor of the school literary magazine, The Mirror, managing editor of the school newspaper, The Centralizer and captain of the Academic Decathalon Team.
In 1996, Cristin started attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for Dramatic Writing, where she was first introduced to poetry slams by her classmate, Beau Sia.
With the help of Beau, Cristin founded the NYC-Urbana Reading Series in 1998. Dedicated to showcasing the most innovative voices in poetry, NYC-Urbana has captured the National Slam Championship title three times. Cristin, herself, made history becoming the youngest founding slammaster in the nation when she started the series at age 19, and has since taken home two Slammaster Slam Championships. The slam is still held weekly at NYC's famed Bowery Poetry Club.
Since graduating from NYU in 2000, Cristin has worked as the editor for the "Adult" section for online portal About.com (see Cristin's second book of poetry, Hot Teen Slut for more information on that) and was a founding employee of the Bowery Poetry Club. She is currently a rights agent for the Artists Rights Society.
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 Culver Academy (Indiana) 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 McSweeney's Internet Tendencies, Pank, Barrelhouse, Umbrella, The Other Journal, decomP, No, Dear Magazine, Monkeybicycle, damselfly, Danse Macabre, Spindle, Long Shot, Going Down Swinging and Rattle, among others...
For more information on forthcoming gigs, recent press and/or her schedule of performances, please see here or write bookings@aptowicz.com.
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