Christopher Bakken
christopherbakken.bsky.social
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.
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
March 8, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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
February 28, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
February 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
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.
February 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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)
February 14, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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
February 14, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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
Www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
January 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
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...
www.thecommononline.org
January 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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
www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
January 12, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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
www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
November 13, 2024 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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
www.writingworkshopsingreece.com
November 13, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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
December 14, 2024 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
“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
December 14, 2024 at 1:14 PM
Gorgona
"Fall back into me now, little ghost/ Let go of the shore."
www.juxtaprosemagazine.org/gorgona-by-c...
December 13, 2024 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
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.
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2024 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken

Here is a quick spotlight on a member of our summer faculty, the unstoppable Joanna Eleftheriou: writingworkshopsingreece.com/joanna-eleft...

Join us on the Greek island of Thasos next summer. Now reading applications.
November 24, 2024 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
A lot of the dimwitted op-eds about Bluesky being an echo chamber because it doesn’t offer a platform for hate and the far right are just lazy find-and-replace reprints of op-eds about higher education being an echo chamber because it doesn’t offer a platform for hate and the far right
November 22, 2024 at 1:27 PM
Happy to have a new poem "On the Way to Panormo" in the new issue of The Sewanee Review thesewaneereview.com
Current Issue
thesewaneereview.com
November 23, 2024 at 1:27 PM
RIP Sandra Gilbert. Reading The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) was so crucial to my experience as a college student at UW Madison a decade after it was published.
www.sunsetviewcemetery.com/obituary/san...
Sandra Mortola Gilbert
Sandra M. Gilbert—distinguished and prolific literary critic, poet, memoirist, editor, and teacher—died after a long illness on Sunday, November 10, at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, California. She...
www.sunsetviewcemetery.com
November 23, 2024 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Christopher Bakken
Who was it, Marvin Bell I think, was doing a poetry reading, I think it was the Dead Man poems era, and someone asked him what one of the poems meant, if he could explain it. He said something like, "I'll try," and then read the poem again.

Pretty good answer, really.
November 23, 2024 at 11:10 AM