Christopher Bogart is a working poet and writer who has earned an MA and an MFA in Creative Writing at Monmouth University. He is the founder of Jersey Shore Poets, and organizes an annual public poetry reading for National Poetry Month, “Poets Live!” at Monmouth County Library/Eastern Branch.His poetry has been published in Voices Rising from the Grove, Spindrift, WestWard Quarterly, Saggio Poetry Journal, The Monmouth Review (2013, 2014 and 2021), Mind Murals (2013), Whirlwind Review (Fall 2014), The Howl of Sorrow, a Collection of Poetry Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, This Broken Shore (Summer 2015. 2018), Jersey Shore Poets/First Edition as well as various online sites. As a published writer, his album and concert reviews for Bruce Springsteen have appeared in Back Stage Pass (July 1984, August 1984), His review of the first book of poetry of Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Natalie Diaz, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was published in Pleiades Journal (Winter 2014). In 2015, Bogart was chosen as First Runner Up for Monmouth University’s inaugural The Joyce Carol Oates Award for Excellence in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction. In 2017, he was chosen as one of two finalists for The Brian Turner Literary Prize for Fiction. In 2018, his chapbook about the Yuma 14, titled 14: Antología del Sonoran, was awarded third place in The Poetry Box Chapbook Contest and was published in October of 2018 by The Poetry Box and nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his poem, “Abraham Morales Hernandez.” In April of 2020, The Poetry Box published his chapbook titled Breakpoint about America in the era of Donald Trump, and a full book of poetry in May about the plight of Central American migrants, and titled The Eater of Dreams. In June of 2022, he released another book of poetry, This Conversation, about two white men who meet accidently at a bar and talk about race. And, in November of 2023, he released a poetic tribute to twenty-five poets who have influenced his poetry: Bards of Passion and Mirth and published by Blast Press. Another book, this one on the war in Ukraine and titled “Соняшники/Sunflowers” will be released by Christmas, 2023. On August 1, 2005, he presented a paper on the importance of poetry in the teaching of literature and writing to the Oxford Round Table at the Oxford Union Debate Hall at Oxford University.He is presently writing poetry and short stories, translating the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca and Arthur Rimbaud into English, as well as working on his first novel, tentatively titled The Beast, about the plight of two Central American teenage migrants who flee poverty and crime in search of a better life in the United States.Read more about this authorRead less about this author