  bio || news & upcoming events poet || screenwriter || non-fiction press || comic diary || friends & family contact info |
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bio || news & upcoming events poet || screenwriter || non-fiction press || comic diary || friends & family contact info |
 bio: AVAILABLE NOW: 
AND ALSO AVAILABLE NOW: 
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 has authored four books of poetry and has performed throughout the U.S. and Australia. Her fourth book of poetry, Oh Terrible Youth was published by The Wordsmith Press in June 2007 and her first book of nonfiction, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam was recently published by Soft Skull Press. 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 toil tirelessly 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. But every breakfast has the funny looking pancake, and so this family had to have Cristin: the writer. 
Cristin grew up in Northeast Philly, and for high school attended Central High, where her nerdiness came to full bloom. During her four years there, she became 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 left the cheese steaks and good soft prezels behind when she began attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for Dramatic Writing. Highlights of her time at NYU include winning the NYU 9th Annual 10 Minute-Play Contest, Winning the Barnes and Noble Monologue Contest a record 3 times, and, of course, her first venture into the world of poetry slams. In June of 1998, Cristin started slamming as a form of revenge against mortal enemy (and later friend), Beau Sia. At age 19, Cristin made the 1998 NYC-Urbana team, along with Beau Sia, Evert Eden and Amanda Nazario. The team placed fifth in nation at the 1998 Austin National Poetry Slam. The following fall, Cristin, along with Beau, Amanda and friend Patrick Anderson, decided to start up their own poetry series, and the modern NYC-Urbana Reading Series was born. Dedicated to showcasing the most innovative voices in poetry, 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. It was also during this time period, that Cristin published her first book of poetry, Dear Future Boyfriend. After graduating from NYU in 2000, Cristin entered the workforce in full. She 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), was a founding employee of the Bowery Poetry Club (where the NYC-Urbana Urbana Slams are still held every Tuesday) and is currently a rights agent for the Artists Rights Society. 
It was also in 2000, at the 2000 Providence National Poetry Slam to be exact (where NYC Urbana placed first, see pic of Cristin with the trophy at left), Cristin met Shappy Seasholtz for the first time. Little did she know volunteering to host his team's semi-finals bout (where he heckled her!) would led to their 7 year long relationship (and counting!). This stands as proof that volunteer work does pay off in the end.
In 2003 Cristin published her third book of poetry, Working Class Represent and returned to Australia (where she had previously lectured on the Poetry Slam in 2001) to work with the Sydney Opera House on a scripted poetry show that will premiered in association with the noise Festival, a biannual festival dedicated to showcasing work from Australian artists under the age of 25. The show, "Mouth Off!!" was created by Cristin and directed by Australian hip hop guru, Morganics, in the span of 3 weeks using the work of 6 Australian poet between the ages of 20 - 25: Steven Smart, Eytan Messiah, Brad Armstrong, Evelyn Tandros, Amy Rhoades and Jesta Sec. The show had a weeklong run at the Sydney Opera House's Studio Theatre. In addition to her time in Sydney, Cristin performed at the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle, Australia as well as spent a week in Melbourne, Australia at one of her favorite international houses o' art, the Gasworks Art Complex. 
Also in 2003, Cristin's screenwriting career began to heat up as Cristin won the Grand Prize at the Philadelphia Film Festival Script Competetion with her historical non-fiction script, Mutter (see pic of Cristin kissing the much-needed award check at left). This same script would go on to win 2004 Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship at the Hampton's International Film Festival.
The summer 2007 saw not only the publication of her fourth book of poetry, Oh Terrible Youth, but also expanded versions of her previously books were all released by The Wordsmith Press. And in January 2008, Words In Your Face, her long awaited history of the New York City Poetry Slam, was published by Soft Skull Press. Currently, Cristin is still living and writing in New York City, living with her boyfriend, Shappy, and working hard to make all the deadlines she is scheduled make. 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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