Emily Creswick Writer's Process Series: Chris Ankney

with the College of Southern Maryland

Join us at the College of Southern Maryland for this month's Writer's Process!

This is a monthly series for students, staff, faculty, and community members where we bring in local writers into the writing center to discuss writing processes.

About the Author: Christopher Ankney is originally from Defiance, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University in 2004 and earned his MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago in 2006. His debut collection, "Hearsay," won the 2014 Jean Feldman Prize at Washington Writers’ Publishing House and was a finalist for the 2015 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. The elegies which make up the book explore the mysterious death of a father and its impact on his young son and the family he left behind.

His two most recent manuscripts placed as semifinalists for 2025 Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes at the University of Wisconsin Press. "Dear Irreverence," explores themes of mental health, poverty, and white privilege and allyship in American before and during the COVID pandemic, while "Palatable Dust" centers on the West’s obsession with land rights that perpetually lead to dehumanizing “the other” via legal battles, war, and genocide, be it indigenous tribes, immigrants, or perceived political and cultural enemies.

Individual poems have appeared in dozens of American and international journals, including "Boston Review," "Dialogist, Electric Literature," "Gulf Coast," "Hunger Mountain," "The MacGuffin," "Panorama," and "Pleiades."

Ankney is an avid runner, mental and physical health advocate, and ally to all marginalized communities. These themes are apparent in both his writing and in his teaching. He enjoys singing, photography, and making people laugh.

He is a tenured professor of English at the College of Southern Maryland. His author website is www.christopherankney.com.

This event will take place at the College of Southern Maryland La Plata Branch (8730 Mitchell Rd, La Plata, MD 20646) in the Learning Resource Center Room 211.

This event is sponsored by the Emily Creswick Fund and the CSM Foundation.

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