The Ghosts of Birds

About the Author Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty collections of poetry, which include X MARKS THE DRESS (2013, with Carol Guess), FORTRESS (2014), GHOST / LANDSCAPE (2016, with John Gallaher), and DARK HORSE (2017), forthcoming from C & R Press. Her books have been described by literary critics as "haunting," "mesmerizing," and "complex." Poet and Kenyon Review editor Zach Savich writes that her body of work is a "singularly graceful and stunningly incisive exploration of poetic insight, vision, and transformation." Donald Revell writes of her SELECTED POEMS, "Here is a new tradition, alive in bright air." Kristina's books have also been reviewed widely in literary magazines, including The Boston Review, Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, The Colorado Review, The Mid-American Review, Pleiades, and The Southern Humanities Review. Within the past few years, her writing has been honored with two Yaddo residencies, a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship, multiple residencies at the American Academy in Rome, and a Visiting Researcher Fellowship from the University of Washington's Helen R. Whiteley Center. She has also held artist-in-residence fellowships at the Ucross Foundation, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Caldera Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Writer's Room at the Betsy Hotel - South Beach, the I-Park Foundation, the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, the Ragdale Foundation, and numerous other institutions. Kristina is the recipient of international literary arts fellowships from the B.A.U. Institute and 360 Xochi Quetzal, as well as grants from Harvard University's Kittredge Fund, the Whiting Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Ora Lerman Trust, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and the Rockefeller Archive Center. She was also awarded a Morris Fellowship in the Arts. Her work has been recognized three times with the Dan Liberthson Prize from the Academy of American Poets. She has received nominations for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award. Kristina is active as a literary critic, with reviews and essays appearing in such magazines as The Gettysburg Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Agni, The Boston Review, The Colorado Review, Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, and New Letters. Her first book of criticism is under contract with C & R Press. An excerpt of this forthcoming work was honored with a nomination for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. Her critical projects have been supported by grants from the University of Missouri and the University at Buffalo, as well as a Riverrun Foundation Research Fellowship to complete archival work at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Kristina holds degrees in English Literature and American Culture Studies from Washington University, as well as an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Missouri. She is currently working toward both an M.F.A. in Poetry at New York University and a Ph.D. in English Literature at S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo. She is Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Quarterly, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Noctuary Press, and Grants Specialist at Black Ocean. Kristin Giordano is a photographer based in Tacoma, WA. She works mainly with antique and experimental cameras. Exhibitions include New York University, Abu Dhabi; the Kittredge Gallery, Tacoma, WA; the Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA; Fulcrum Gallery, Tacoma, WA; and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Tucson, AZ. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the collection of the Photographic Center Northwest. Awards include a 2008 project grant from Qatar University, a 2011 Print Sponsorship