Bio

Miscellaneous personal and professional things about me: I'm a freelance manuscript editor (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) with clients all over the world; Editor-in-Chief of Del Sol Press; faculty with the Algonkian Writer Retreat and Novel Workshop. I also teach workshops. Until 2019 I was the program director for literary arts for my state arts council and directed the state Poetry Out Loud program for the NEA and the liaison to the state poet laureate, so I have a strong background in arts/program/grants administration. I've run programs for 130,000 students and $1.5 million in grants--retreats, conferences, awards ceremonies, competitions, strategic planning convenings, juries, grants panels. You name it. I worked in the Humanities for a time but left because working in the arts, much as I love supporting artists, students, teachers, arts orgs, and communities, doesn't leave any real time for your own creative work. I'm now in higher education. I have degrees in writing. I teach writing. I've published my work. I've won big prizes. I write novels, poetry, and plays. I love chocolate, am talkative but an introvert, a realist and idealist, prefer flannel to silk, am a real blonde, and consider books my life - reading them, writing them, smelling them, tasting them (yeah, I've licked a page or two in my time. Who hasn't?). I've been a resident artist and collaborated with an animator. an aerialist (trapezes, swings, and ladders!), and a beatboxer. I created a mannequin poem there. Her name is Solange and she's badass. She appears on my Instagram page sometimes: @realwriterchris. I've attended the big name conferences (way longer than they needed to be, too much hooking up and not enough writing (not me, other people--I was there for the work!), and so many egos! I read tarot and oracle cards for people, their characters, or their writing (want a reading? Email: therealwriter@gmail.com). I have a novel coming out from a small press this year or next. I am exploring a complete shift in my life right now with fun projects ahead. Happy to share what I learn as I go. Welcome.