Christopher Bakken


Christopher Bakken an American poet, translator, chef, travel writer, and professor at Allegheny College.
He graduated from Columbia University with an M.F.A. and from University of Houston with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. He was a Fulbright Scholar twice: in American Studies at the University of Bucharest in 2008 and again at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece in 2021. He is Director of : Thessaloniki and Thasos. Bakken serves as poetry editor of .
His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Wall Street Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Iowa Review, Parnassus, Raritan, Southwest Review, and Western Humanities Review. His first poetry collection, After Greece, was published by Truman State University Press after he won the T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University).
His burger recipe won a Food & Wine contest.

Works

Books

Driving the Beast. Sewanee Poetry Series. Louisiana State University Press, 2025. Eternity & Oranges. Pitt Poetry Series, 2016. Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek Table University of California Press, 2013, Goat Funeral Sheep Meadow Press, 2006, After Greece Truman State University Press, 2001,

Translations

The Lions’ Gate: Selected Poems of Titos Patrikios, Translated Christopher Bakken, Roula Konsolaki, Truman State University Press, 2006,

Poems

  • "." Plume. 2024.
  • "" Plume. 2022.
  • "." Academy of American Poets poets.org. 2017The Missouri Review 2012
  • , Parnassus: Poetry in Review via Poetry Daily. 2009.
  • , AGNI 2006
  • Academy of American Poets 2016
  • . Academy of American Poets 2017
  • "." Juxtaprose

Anthologies

  • "Negative Theology. Braving the Body. Small Harbor Editions, 2024.
  • "Assos." The Eloquent Poem. Persea Books.
  • "Sentence." Best American Poetry. 2016. Scribner. Kindled Terraces: American Poets in Greece, Truman State University Press, 2004.
  • , Poets against the War, Editors Sam Hamill, Sally Anderson, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003,
  • , Under the rock umbrella: contemporary American poets, 1951–1977, Editor William J. Walsh, Mercer University Press, 2006,

Reviews

  • Review of Eternity & Oranges by Eric Smith in
  • Review of Eternity & Oranges in
  • Review of Eternity & Oranges at
If Bakken can, in the future, stay put in his resplendent Hellenic-inflected imagination for a good while, and avoid the art museum and his personal library, he may just write a book with the smell, taste, and texture of ambrosia. Goat Funeral isn’t quite that, but it’s not chopped liver, either.

Awards