poet:

Cristin is now booking for 2010!
If you are interested in bringing Cristin to your college, performance space or festival,
please inquire about her availability at bookings@aptowicz.com!

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is the author of five books of poetry, including the recently released Everything is Everthing (Write Bloody Publishing, 2010). She is the founder of the three-time National Poetry Slam Championship venue, NYC-Urbana, and recently authored Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008), which U.S. Poet Laureate 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." For the latest in Cristin news and gigs, click here.


READ Cristin's latest poetry by clicking on the title of the poem:
"Not A Smart A I Think I Am" as published in Suss: Another Literary Journal (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"The Air Up There", "Be Prepared," "Every Winter, People Think My Boyfriend is Elvis Costello, and "Insults That Only Work If You Are Into Presidential Trivia as published in PANK (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"A Short History of Unusual Fish" as published in decomP (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"A Shock of Sky" as published in The Other Journal (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"Poetry Reading, Inauguration Night, New York City" as published in The New Verse News (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"Why I Shouldn't Read Books" and "Scientific Facts That Don't Apply To Me" as published in The Foghorn (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"How Carpophorus Did It" as published in Danse Macabre (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"Rolling Stone Magazine Interviews Rivers Cuomo, from Weezer" as published in The Found Poetry Project (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"The Art of Holiday Spirit: Astoria, Queens" as published in The Hayden's Ferry Review blog (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"Heavy Petting Zoo", "Crack Squirrels" and "Warranty" as published in The Legendary (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)
"A Poem Not About the Brooklyn Bridge" as published in The November 3rd Club blog (and forthcoming in Everything is Everything)


LISTEN to Cristin performing some of her best known poems by clicking on the title of the poem:
"Lit" from Dear Future Boyfriend
"Mother" from Dear Future Boyfriend
"To Whom It May Concern" from Hot Teen Slut
"Fucking Made Easy" from Hot Teen Slut
"All I'd Leave Behind" from Working Class Represent

"Ode To My Morning Cup of Coffee" from Working Class Represent
"On Reading Old Unrequited Love Poems" from Oh, Terrible Youth
"Sexton and Plath" from Oh, Terrible Youth
"Estephania" from Oh, Terrible Youth
"Crack Squirrels" forthcoming in Everything is Everything

Or WATCH Cristin perform (special thanks to Jeffrey Kay for the majority of these vids!): "Mother"
from Dear Future Boyfriend

"Science"
from Dear Future Boyfriend

"Lit"
from Dear Future Boyfriend

"Estephania"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"This Mask Is What's Keeping My Face Up"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"Heavenly Creature"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"Write a Poem about Monsters"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"Notes on Rejection(s)"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"Our Year of Smut"
from Oh, Terrible Youth

"Crack Squirrels"
from Everything is Everything

"Drunk Boyfriend at the Poetry Reading "
from Everything is Everything

"Junkyard Ghost Revival"
from Everything is Everything

"In Lieu of His Writing Any New Poetry, The Author Critiques The Four Line Song She Heard Her Boyfriend Spontaneously Create While Drunkenly Walking Up Their Apartment Building's Stairwell"
from Everything is Everything

"A Poem Not About the Brooklyn Bridge"
from Everything is Everything

"Use Your Words"
from Everything is Everything

"Ten Things I've Told People About Dachshunds..."
from Everything is Everything

"Starter Marriage"


Her poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in McSweeney's Internet Tendencies, Rattle, Pank, BarrelhouseMonkeyBicycle, and decomP (among others), as well as in anthologies such as Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Spoken Word, Herding Kites: 10 Years of the National Young Writer Festival, The Last American Valentine, The Good Things About America and Word Warriors (among others).

Cristin also has an open policy about other people performing her work. Used in high school and college-age forensics competitions, Cristin's poetry has also won many state-wide and national forensics titles.