Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick has won awards for his books of poetry and fiction, as well as recognition for his workshops and speaking appearances. His work with writers and writing extends from his local library and schools to the international community of PEN USA's Freedom to Write Committee.
A lover of all things literary, Chris has 27 years of professional experience with college-level courses and community workshops. A recent participant remarked about experience a workshop with Chris, "[He] offers ringing insight and clarity in his work, both on the page and at the front of the room."
Lost Songs & Last Chances, Chris’s new collection of poems, charts a unique journey across a landscape ranging from the peaks and plains of the Rocky Mountains to the lush landscapes of northern Wales. Along the way he maps the intersections of the natural world's austere and grand beauty with the resiliency and power of the imagination, which in these poems swell and soar in opposition to the constraints and uncertainties of modern life. His eye for detail, his talent for magnifying nuance, evoke the wonder and mystery of what we might consider, upon first glance, as merely ordinary.
Chris’ previous works have garnered critical acclaim and awards, demonstrating the versatility and freshness of voice for which he’s known. His collection of short fiction, A Return to Emptiness, was winner of the Colorado Authors' League award for fiction and a finalist for the 2005 Colorado Book Award. His first book, Never Summer, Poems From Thin Air, won a 2003 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and was released in a second edition in 2005.
"To read the superb poetry of
Chris Ransick is to step
outside
and take a deep breath
of Colorado mountain air."
--Rocky Mountain News
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