Christine Delea Biography, Photos and Publications

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Biography

Christine Delea was born and grew up in West Islip, on the South Shore of Long Island in New York. Her first claim to fame was a photo taken by a local newspaper photographer in front of the West Islip Public Library . Shell photo

After graduating from West Islip High School in 1978, Christine attended Marietta College in Ohio, receiving a BA with two majors: English and Psychology-Sociology. Her MA in English is from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia; for this degree, Christine wrote two theses: a collection of poems, and a critical thesis on Shirley Jackson. Her terminal degree, a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of North Dakota, was awarded in 1996. She is now an assistant professor in the Creative Writing Program in the English Department at Eastern Kentucky University.

Besides the states listed above, Christine has also lived in Maine, Mississippi, Colorado, and Oregon, where she developed a taste for Oregon wine and a passion for quilting. Being dragged along with her, or dragging her along with him, is her husband Mel White and their cats: Agatha, Doppel, Eerie, and Loki. Her brother Will and wife Sarah live in Wisconsin, within driving distance of the Mustard Museum, and her parents live in the house she grew up in, enjoying retirement from high school teaching.

Christine's poems have been published in numerous places Her chapbook, Ordinary Days in Ordinary Places, was published in 2000 by Pudding House Publications. Other places that have published her work include Long Island Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, Rattapalax, Heliotrope, Sulphur River Literary Review, Quercus Review, Ellipsis, Black Dirt, Washington Square, Portland Review, Berkshire Review, Re:AL, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Slipstream, and Fireweed. She also has poems in two geographically-focused anthologies: Prairie Volcano: An Anthology of North Dakota Writers (1995) and I Have My Own Song for It: Modern Poems of Ohio (2002).

Awards won for poetry include the 2001 Editor's Poetry Prize from the Spoon River Poetry Review, First Prize in the 2001 White Mice contest sponsored by Deus Loci, two Pushcart Prize nominations, an Academy of American Poets University Award, and First Prize in the 2002 Poetry Society of New Hampshire Spring Poetry Contest.

She is a member of the Oregon State Poetry Association, the Kentucky State Poetry Society, the Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, AWP, AAUW, the Edith Wharton Society, Kentucky Writers' Coalition, and the Appalachian Writers Association.