Flying Backbone

Flying Backbone collects Christopher Buckley's poems from 1979 through 2007 responding to the life and paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe. Taken from one full-length book and two chapbooks-all long out of print-plus two new poems, the project concludes at 52 poems. Also reprinted is an essay in which Buckley not only speaks to his process, but to comment from art critics over the years. Buckley explains that he was compelled by "The vitality she found in everything-from bones in the desert to skyscrapers in Manhattan-the way the work suggests a practical cast, one that cherishes the earth and praises the strength of the human spirit as it endures here." ~~~~~

"He has an exquisite ear for language... no concept is over-stated-it's all marvelously fresh."
- Library Journal ~~~~~

"What the soul learns is that, from the perspective of the universe... the local might be the entirety of the earth.... (His) poems inscribe a desire for what does shine, for the redemptive. - Lisa M. Steinman, Michigan Quarterly Review. ~~~~~

"... absolutely reverent and absolutely fearless poetic assumptions... they are never mere documents or 'interpretations.' They are inspired trances: eerie, faceted, gem-clear and like O'Keeffe, fired by such fixed and radiant perceptions they leave the reader stunned." - Carol Muske `````````` About Christopher Buckley ~~~~~~~~~~
Christopher Buckley's most recent books are AND THE SEA, (2006), and SKY (2004) from The Sheep Meadow Press.

His 16th book of poetry, MODERN HISTORY: Prose Poems 1987-2007, will be published by Tupelo Press in September 2008. ROLLING THE BONES will appear from Eastern Washington Univ. Press in early 2009.
With Gary Young Buckley is the editor of The Geography of Home: California's Poetry of Place (1999), and with David Oliveira and M.L. Williams he is editor of How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets (2001). For the Univ. of Michigan Press' Under Discussion series, he has edited The Poetry of Philip Levine: Stranger To Nothing, 1991.

Recently he has edited the poetry anthology, Homage To Vallejo, Greenhouse Review Press, 2006. And, with Alexander Long, A CONDITION OF THE SPIRIT: THE LIFE AND WORK OF LARRY LEVIS, Eastern Washington Univ. Press, 2004.

BEAR FLAG REPUBLIC: Prose Poems & Poetics from California, edited with Gary Young, is just out from Alcatraz Editions.
Over the last 30 years his poetry has appeared in APR, POETRY, FIELD, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Nation, The Hudson Review, The Gettysburg Review, Quarterly West, Prairie Schooner, & New Letters among others.
He has received a Fulbright Award in Creative Writing to the former Yugoslavia, four Pushcart Prizes, two awards from the Poetry Society of America, and is the recipient of NEA grants in poetry for 2001 and 1984. Recent poetry awards include the City Works National Writers Award for 2006 from San Diego Community College, and the Kenneth O. Hansen poetry award from HUBBUB magazine.

He is a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry for 2007-2008., and teaches in the creative writing Program at the Univ. of California Riverside.