Oliver Baez Bendorf

Oliver Baez Bendorf
Born	(1987-06-21) June 21, 1987 Iowa City, Iowa
Nationality	American
Education	BA University of Iowa, MFA University of Wisconsin-Madison, MLIS University of Wisconsin-Madison
Genre	Poetry
Notable works	The Spectral Wilderness (2015)
Website
www.oliverbendorf.org

Oliver Baez Bendorf is an American poet and librarian.

Life

Oliver Baez Bendorf was born on June 21, 1987,^[1] in Iowa City, Iowa.^[2] He received a BA from the University of Iowa in 2009. In 2013, he completed an MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Lynda Barry.^[3] In 2015, he received an MA in Library and Information Studies, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[4]

He has taught poetry at University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as a teaching artist at 826DC, Madison Public Library, District of Columbia Public Schools, Mount Holyoke College, Wick Poetry Center, and elsewhere.^[5]

His work has been published in journals and magazines such as Alaska Quarterly Review,^[6] Blackbird,^[7] diode,^[8] Indiana Review,^[9] jubilat,^[10] and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.^[11]

His debut full-length collection, The Spectral Wilderness^[12], was selected by Mark Doty for the 2013 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and released by Kent State University Press in 2015.^[13]

Bendorf is a transgender man, and has used his work to discuss gender identity and transition, sometimes in humorous ways.^[14][15]

Awards and honors

• 2017-2018 Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing^[16]
• 2016 Finalist, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, The Publishing Triangle, for The Spectral Wilderness^[17]
• 2015 New American Poets, Poetry Society of America. Selected by Natalie Diaz^[18]
• 2013-14 Doug Fir Fiction Award, The Bear Deluxe. Selected by Lidia Yuknavitch^[19]

• 2013 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize, The Spectral Wilderness, Kent State University Press, 2015. Selected by Mark Doty^[20]
• 2011-13 Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Poetry at University of Wisconsin-Madison^[21]

Works

• Book: The Spectral Wilderness: Poems. Kent State University Press. 2014. ISBN 9781606352113. 
• Poem: ghost ship novena inside a year-long funeral (BOAAT)
• Poem: I Promised Her My Hands Wouldn’t Get Any Larger (Ninth Letter)
• Poem: Ten Telegrams from Paradise (Feminist Wire)
• Poem: Queer Facts About Vegetables (Poetry Society of America)
• Visual poems: Folio (Adirondack Review)
• Visual poems: Folio (THRUSH Poetry Journal)

References