Christina Davis is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

most notably recognized for two collections of poetry that deal with philosophically questioning common ideas and emotions: ''An Ethic'', published in 2013, and ''Forth A Raven'', published in 2006. In ''An Ethic'', Davis addresses the grief and darkness of a father's death, the challenges of conventional constructs of life on earth and an afterlife somewhere else. This seems to be a theme building on ideas she explored in ''Forth A Raven''. She phases it simply as "There is no this or that world." As one reviewer wrote, "What follows is a rigorous meditation on this premise, a refusal of the notion that one passes from presence into absence, from life into death, as if by bridge or tunnel. Rather, presence and absence, life and death, coexist—and we are daily challenged to reconcile their simultaneity."

Life

She graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. She lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where she worked for the

Poetry Society of America Poetry (from the Greek word '' poiesis'', "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any partic ...

, Teachers & Writers Collaborative,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, and Poets House. Her poems have appeared in '' American Poetry Review'', ''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

'', '' Jubilat'', the '' New Republic'', ''

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...

'', and the '' Paris Review''. She was on a "Louder Than Words" panel at the 2009 Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Her first collection, ''Forth A Raven'', was published in 2006 by Alice James Books, and her second collection, ''An Ethic'', in 2013 by Nightboat. She currently lives in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. She is curator of poetry at the Woodberry Poetry Room at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Awards

* Residencies from

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

and the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...

and 201
James Merrill House Fellow
* 2009 Witter Bynner Fellowship

Works

* * ''An Ethic'', selected and with an introduction by Forrest Gander (Nightboat, 2013)

Editor

References

External links

"Website of Christina Davis"

"Articles written for Boston Review"

"Biographical Note, Essays, and Poems on the Poetry Foundation website"
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University faculty American women poets American women academics 21st-century American women writers {{US-poet-stub