non-fiction:

Cristin has had a long history in writing non-fiction, both essay and articles. She was a cub reporter for her middle school newspaper, The Baldi Bugle, and wrote a blissfully unaware piece about all the funny people she saw at a Grateful Dead Concert (free tickets, she went with her dad, don't ask). She went on to write for her high school newspaper, The Centralizer, and eventually becoming its managing editor her senior year.

Once in college, Cristin began to freelance her work in professional publications (including a cover article entitled "A Girl's Guide to Porn" for Bust Magazine and websites (including a 2 year stint as an About.com's Poetry Museletterist.

Her latest non-fiction project is Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, which will be published by Soft Skull this November. For more information on Cristin's book releases and readings, click here.



Without question, Poetry Slams have changed the face of poetry in the 21st Century. And though the idea for poetry slams was hatched out of the brain of Chicago construction worker Marc Smith in the late 1980s, Poetry Slams would never have had the cultural impact that it did without the poets of New York City. Words in Your Face: A Guide Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam explores the birth, growing pains and continuing development of this alternative culture arts movement.

The book will cover the history of slam in NYC from its humble beginnings in 1989 at the newly reopened Nuyorican Poets Cafe and on through such watershed pop cultural moments for poetry as: MTV's early 90s slam projects Spoken Word Unplugged and Smokin' Word; the mid 90s slam-based films Slamnation and Slam; the recent HBO's Def Poetry and its Tony Award-winning theatrical manifestation, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. All of these projects were based in NYC and utilized NYC poets. However, the aim of the book is not just to be "yearbook for the NYC slam scene." Studded throughout the history are interviews featuring some of the most recognizable names in the poetry, which allow the reader access to the individual and personal narratives of this distinctly New York story by using the poets' own words and stories. Poetry Slams permanently changed the cultural landscape of poetry in America, and Words in Your Face shows how the NYC poetry community took a Chicago phenomena and forever changed how America viewed poetry and how poets viewed themselves.

For quick link to some of her online writing, see below. Check out the news and upcoming event section for any articles currently on newstands:

SLOAN FILM SUMMIT
http://www.movingimage.us/science/

EXTREME POETRY ON ESPN
http://poetry.about.com/arts/poetry/library/weekly/aa000222.htm

AS IF JOSEPH MONCURE MARCH WASN'T DEAD ALREADY
http://poetry.about.com/arts/poetry/library/weekly/aa050200a.htm

60 MINUTES: THE POETS SLAM BACK
http://poetry.about.com/arts/poetry/library/weekly/aa120799.htm

BILLY GODDAMN GILLMAN, GODDAMN!
http://www.leisuresuit.net/Webzine/articles/billy_gilman.shtml

COME ON MR. DJ, PUT MADONNA ON
http://www.leisuresuit.net/Webzine/articles/madonna_music.shtml