Christopher Gilbert

For the cricketer, see Chris Gilbert (cricketer).

Christopher Gilbert (born August 1, 1949, Birmingham, Alabama-July 5, 2007) was an American poet.

Life

He is the son of Floyd and Rosie (Walker) Gilbert. He grew up in Lansing, Michigan.

He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972, and PhD. in psychology from Clark University in 1986.

He work appears in African-American Literary Review, Callaloo, Crab Apple Review, Graham House Review, Indiana Review, Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, Urbanus, William & Mary Review, and New York Quarterly.

His poem Any Good Throat, is on a monument in Jackson Square, Boston.

He lived in Providence, Rhode Island.

Awards

• 1983 Walt Whitman Award
• 1986 The Frost Place poet in residence

Works

Poetry

• Nikky Finney, ed. (2007). "Time with Stevie Wonder in It". The ringing ear. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2925-3.

• Across the Mutual Landscape. Graywolf Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0-915308-48-4.

Anthologies

• Arnold Rampersad, Hilary Herbold, ed. (2006). The Oxford anthology of African-American poetry. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512563-4.
• Fred Moramarco, Al Zolynas, ed. (1992). Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2394-7.
• Sascha Feinstein, Yusef Komunyakaa, ed. (1991). The Jazz poetry anthology. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20637-4.

Reviews

ACROSS THE MUTUAL LANDCAPE is a first collection of poems by a young black psychotherapist from a working-class background in Lansing, Mich., who acknowledges many musical influences but only a few literary ones. The book was chosen by Michael Harper for the 1983 Walt Whitman Award - a choice reflecting Mr. Harper's longstanding commitment to what is richest and most serious in black American poetry. Christopher Gilbert is a careful, craftsmanly writer. His subtle, syncopated rhythms make one think of jazz; but the syncopation is made audible, often, by the underlying presence of meter...