Christopher Bakken
@christopherbakken.bsky.social
Poet and nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, etc. Director of Writing Workshops in Greece: Thessaloniki & Thasos. DRIVING THE BEAST (poems) forthcoming from LSUP in 2025.
Today's Feature: "Paestum" by @christopherbakken.bsky.social from Driving the Beast published by Louisiana State University Press Read here: poems.com/poem/paestum/
Paestum
arrowheads of swallows slicing a wind strong enough to set their wings on fire, but not the weather so much as the place itself,
poems.com
Thanks to Poetry Daily for featuring my poem "Paestum" today poems.com/poem/paestum...
Paestum
arrowheads of swallows slicing a wind strong enough to set their wings on fire, but not the weather so much as the place itself,
poems.com
Milosz, "Late Ripeness" open.substack.com/pub/bakkenpo...
Czeslaw Milosz, "Late Ripeness"
Milosz owned an American passport when he died in Krakow in 2004, so it's worth asking how his time in the U.S.--and in California in particular--imprinted the poems he wrote in his last decades.
open.substack.com
"Paestum": a poem traveling to your April all the way from Magna Graecia" bakkenpoet.substack.com/p/paestum-ev...
Yannis Ritsos, "News Report" During the military dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974), Ritsos was forbidden to publish and placed under house arrest: for long periods on the island of Samos, likely where he wrote this poem in 1969....[read more at bakkenpoet.substack.com]
Happy to see mention of the sublime Amanda Michalopoulou, though it is a pity the author does not seem to be aware of the work of Natalie Bakopoulos, an exception to so much being glossed here. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The Light and the Poverty | Los Angeles Review of Books
Dominic Amerena examines the enduring appeal of Greece and the destination novel.
lareviewofbooks.org
It’s horrifying that it’s come to this, but as someone with a deep affinity for Europe I feel moved seeing that continent come together to try to save itself in the absence of any meaningful aid from the totalitarian regime that’s in the midst of taking over the United States through an illegal coup
Lord Dampnut & VJ Dance: "bow and kiss our boots and grovel or we won't play." No truth. No sense of history. Just rambling bullshit and bowing to the real Oz in the room: Putin. Disgrace. Shame. American idiocy.
The poet is at the edge of our consciousness of the world, finding beyond the suspected nothingness which we imagine limits our perception another acre or so of being worth our venturing upon. ~Guy Davenport (The Geography of the Imagination)
Three days until our early decision application deadline for Writing Workshops in Greece: Thessaloniki and Thasos. This year's faculty: Amanda Michalopoulou Scott Cairns Christopher Bakken Joanna Eleftheriou Panayotis Paddy League and Allison Wilkins Bakken www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
Apply now to write with us on Thasos this summer. Early app deadline is 2/15. Workshops and residencies. A Roman marble quarry. Three beaches. Island cuisine. Literary hootenanny. Www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
Writing Workshops in Greece
Writing Workshops in Greece Thessaloniki & Thasos
writingworkshopsingreece.com
Theology of Flight at The Common. www.thecommononline.org/theology-of-... "One bullet. Even a rumor of bullet/ restless in the chamber of a neighbor's gun..."
Theology of Flight
CHRISTOPHER BAKKEN<br> One bullet. Even a rumor of bullet / restless in the chamber of a neighbor’s gun. / To run, before he arrives with his god. / Gather only what can be carried. / No litany for th...
thecommononline.org
Now reading applications for our summer writing workshops on the Greek island of Thasos www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
Writing Workshops in Greece
Writing Workshops in Greece Thessaloniki & Thasos
writingworkshopsingreece.com
Workshops and residencies for writers on the Greek island of Thasos. Yoga, Greek language instruction, archaeology, words. Summer Faculty: Courtney Zoffness, Scott Cairns, Joanna Eleftheriou, Amanda Michalopoulou, Paddy League, Christopher Bakken, Allison Wilkins. www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
Writing Workshops in Greece
Writing Workshops in Greece Thessaloniki & Thasos
writingworkshopsingreece.com
Writing Workshops in Greece: Thessaloniki & Thasos Hello to everyone on Bluesky. Join us this summer for literary inspiration, community and yoga on a remote peninsula on a remote island. www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
Writing Workshops in Greece
Writing Workshops in Greece Thessaloniki & Thasos
writingworkshopsingreece.com
Summer Faculty Spotlight: Courtney Zoffness is the author of the memoir-in-essays SPILT MILK (McSweeney's). She's an Associate Professor of English at Drew University and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Come find us at writingworkshopsingreece.com
“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist” James Baldwin
Gorgona "Fall back into me now, little ghost/ Let go of the shore." www.juxtaprosemagazine.org/gorgona-by-c...
Alice Brock, whose Massachusetts diner was immortalized in Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 song “Alice’s Restaurant,” died on Thursday — just a week before Thanksgiving, the holiday during which the story at the center of the song takes place. She was 83.
Alice Brock, Restaurant Owner Made Famous by a Song, Dies at 83
Arlo Guthrie’s antiwar staple “Alice’s Restaurant” was inspired by a Thanksgiving Day visit to her diner in western Massachusetts.
nytimes.com
