Cokinos, Christopher A. 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born January 13, 1963, in Indianapolis, IN; son of George (a chemist) and Marge (a nurse) Cokinos; partner of Kathe Lison (a writer and teacher). Ethnicity: "White." Education: Indiana University at Bloomington, B.A., 1981; Washington University, St. Louis, MO, M.F.A., 1991. Politics: Democrat/Independent. Religion: "Philosophical Taoist." Hobbies and other interests: Stargazing, backpacking, birding, gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322. Agent—Natasha Kern, P.O. Box 1068, White Salmon, WA 98672.

CAREER:

Kansas State University, Manhattan, instructor, 1991-97, visiting assistant professor, 1997-2000, assistant professor of English, 2000-02; Utah State University, Logan, assistant professor of English and adjunct assistant professor of environment and society, 2002—. Kansas Audubon Council, president, 1996-98; Sustainable Manhattan, cofounder, 1997; Bear River Watershed Council, volunteer, 2006—. Conference presenter; workshop participant; competition judge; public speaker. Member of editorial board, Organization and Environment, 2000-02.

MEMBER:

Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (member of executive council, 1997-2000), Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society (past board member and conservation chair), Bridgerland Audubon Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Poetry fellow, Kansas Arts Commission, 1996; Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund grant, 1998; visiting artist fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 1998; Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Prize, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, 2001, for Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds; Glasgow Prize for an emerging nonfiction writer, Shenandoah, 2002; Whiting Writers' Award, Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, 2003; FineLine prize for lyric prose, Mid-American Review, 2003; Antarctic visiting artist and writer fellow, National Science Foundation, 2003-04; fellow of Utah Arts Commission, 2005; grants from Marie Eccles Caine Foundation and Utah Arts Council.

WRITINGS:

Killing Seasons (poetry collection), Woodley Press (Topeka, KS), 1993.

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds, Tarcher (New York, NY), 2000.

Work represented in anthologies, including I Feel a Little Jumpy around You, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B. Janeczko, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994; "How Shall We Tell Each Other of the Poet?" The Life and Writing of Muriel Rukeyser, edited by Anne F. Herzog and Janet E. Kaufman, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999; Urban Nature: Poems about Wildlife in the City, edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Milkweed Editions (Minneapolis, MN), 2000; and Pirces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing, edited by Olivia Dresher, Impassio Press (Seattle, WA), 2006. Contributor of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and reviews to periodicals, including Interim, Dislocate, 580 Split: Journal of Arts and Letters, Access Utah, Meteorite: Poetry Midwest, Antarctic Sun, Western Humanities Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Iowa Review, and Ecotone. Founding editor, Isotope: Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, 2003—; editor, Research and Creative Activity, 1988-89, and Petroglyph, 2002; guest editor, American Nature Writing Newsletter, 1993.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Hayden's Ferry Review, spring-summer, 2002, Robert Johnson, Jr., "The Environment and Factual Story-Telling: An Interview with Christopher Cokinos," pp. 146-155.