Chris Ransick

Chris Ransick, Denver Poet Laureate from 2006-2010, was an award winning author of six books of poetry and fiction, most recently mummer prisoner scavenger thief (2019) and Language for the Living and the Dead (2013).

Chris was a faculty member from 2005-2019 at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Denver's independent creative writing school. Lighthouse awarded him the 2013 Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence. Chris held his final reading at Lighthouse Writers Workshop on September 25, 2019. A podcast of this event is available at: https://www.lighthousewriters.org/blog/chris-ransick-celebration. The first half features friends and colleagues reading Chris’ work. The second part is Chris’ reading.

Chris died on November 4, 2019. He worked as a journalist, editor, professor, and speaker, and served on his city's public library board, his state's humanities board of directors, and on the PEN Freedom to Write Committee. His first book, Never Summer, won a 2003 Colorado Book Award for Poetry. His book of short stories, A Return to Emptiness, was a 2005 Colorado Book Award for fiction finalist, and all his titles are available in new editions from Bower House Books.  

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