Richard Chess (poet)

Richard Chess (born 1953 in Los Angeles) is an American poet. He spent most of his childhood and youth in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is the author of three books of poetry, Third Temple (2007), Chair in the Desert (2000), and Tekiah (1994). His poems have appeared in many journals as well as several anthologies, including Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 and Telling and Remembering: A Century of American-Jewish Poetry.

He is professor of literature and language at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He directs UNCA’s Center for Jewish Studies as well as UNCA’s Creative Writing Program. He has been a member of the low-residency MFA faculties at Warren Wilson College and Queens College. He served for a number of years as writer-in-residence at the Brandeis Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, California. He is now assistant director of The Jewish Arts Institute at Elat Chayyim, located at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, where he will be teaching creative writing in a two year training institute that begins in August 2007. He is poetry editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture.

He lives in Asheville with his wife, Laurie, and son, Gabe. His two-step daughters, Alice and Margaret, are currently pursuing their careers elsewhere.

External links

• RichardChess.com