Oliver Baez Bendorf

Oliver Baez Bendorf
Born	(1987-06-21) June 21, 1987 Iowa City, Iowa
Nationality	American
Education	University of Iowa (BA), University of Wisconsin-Madison (MFA) (MLIS)
Genre	Poetry
Notable works	The Spectral Wilderness (2015)
Website
www.oliverbendorf.org

Oliver Baez Bendorf is a poet, essayist, and educator.

Life

Oliver Baez Bendorf was born on June 21, 1987,^[1] in Iowa City, Iowa.^[2] He received a BA from the University of Iowa in 2009. In 2013, he completed an MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he met his teacher Lynda Barry.^[3] In 2015, he received an MA in Library and Information Studies, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[4]

He has taught poetry at a selection of institutions including University of Wisconsin-Madison, 826DC, Madison Public Library, District of Columbia Public Schools, Mount Holyoke College, Wick Poetry Center, and elsewhere.^[5]

His work has been featured in outlets including Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day,^[6] Alaska Quarterly Review,^[7] Blackbird,^[8] Black Warrior Review,^[9] diode,^[10] Indiana Review,^[11] jubilat,^[12] and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.^[13]He has published essays^[14] and comics poetry^[15], in addition to poetry, and his poetry has been translated into Russian.

His debut full-length collection, The Spectral Wilderness^[16], was selected by Mark Doty for the 2013 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and released by Kent State University Press in 2015.^[17]

Bendorf is a transgender man, and has used his work to discuss gender identity and transition, sometimes in humorous ways.^[18][19]

He is an Assistant Professor of English at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.^[20]

Awards and honors

• 2018 Open Book Poetry Competition, Cleveland State University Poetry Center^[21]
• 2017-2018 Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing^[22]
• 2016 Finalist, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, The Publishing Triangle, for The Spectral Wilderness^[23]
• 2015 New American Poets, Poetry Society of America. Selected by Natalie Diaz^[24]
• 2013-14 Doug Fir Fiction Award, The Bear Deluxe. Selected by Lidia Yuknavitch^[25]
• 2013 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize, The Spectral Wilderness, Kent State University Press, 2015. Selected by Mark Doty^[26]
• 2011-13 Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Poetry at University of Wisconsin-Madison^[27]

Works

• Book: The Spectral Wilderness: Poems. Kent State University Press. 2015. ISBN 9781606352113.
• Poem: ghost ship novena inside a year-long funeral (BOAAT)
• Poem: Ritual (Black Warrior Review)
• Poem: Evergreen (Academy of American Poets)
• Poem: I Promised Her My Hands Wouldn’t Get Any Larger (Ninth Letter)
• Poem: Ten Telegrams from Paradise (Feminist Wire)
• Poem: Queer Facts About Vegetables (Poetry Society of America)
• Visual poems: Folio (Adirondack Review)
• Visual poems: Folio (THRUSH Poetry Journal)

References