Chris Ransick

Chris Ransick (born 1962) is a writer of literary fiction and poetry from Colorado. Ransick was appointed by Mayor John Hickenlooper as the poet laureate for the City of Denver, a post Ransick held from 2006 to 2010.

Life

Chris Ransick was born in Syracuse, NY and raised in nearby Auburn, in the Finger Lakes region. He earned a B.A from San Francisco State University (1983), an M.A. in journalism from the University of Montana (1988) and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis (1990). During the years he was earning his degrees he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, and also served as an editorial assistant to the editors of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology.

Ransick married Shannon Skaife in 1983 and is the father of two children. He settled with his family in Englewood, Colorado in 1990, where he worked as a college professor for 24 years teaching courses in English, creative writing, screenwriting, film studies, humanities, and media studies. He has been a faculty member at Denver's well regarded literary center, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, since 2005. He was awarded the organization's Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.

Ransick has served as a member of PEN USA's Freedom to Write Committee, as well as serving on his local public library board for 8 years. Upon appointment as Denver's poet laureate, he helped establish the city's program supporting literary arts by organizing readings and engaging with a diverse range of literary groups in the city. He was reappointed to a second term as poet laureate and completed his service in 2010.

Bibliography

Never Summer: Poems from Thin Air. Colorado Book Award for poetry, 2003

A Return to Emptiness. Colorado Book Award finalist for fiction, 2005

Lost Songs & Last Chances.

Asleep Beneath the Hill of Dreams.

Language for the Living and the Dead.