American poet and writer
Oliver Baez Bendorf (born 1987) is a poet.
Early life and education
Oliver Baez Bendorf was born on June 21, 1987,
[1] in
Iowa City, Iowa .
[2] His poems sometimes feature the landscape of his childhood,
[3] and his writing about returning to Iowa for a visit while transitioning genders was published in Buzzfeed .
[4] He graduated with a BA from the
University of Iowa in 2009. In 2013, he earned an MFA in poetry from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison , where he met his teachers
Lynda Barry ,
[5]
Quan Barry ,
Amaud Jamaul Johnson ,
Jesse Lee Kercheval , and
Ronald Wallace .
[6] In 2015, he received an MA in Library and Information Studies, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
[7] where he worked with The Little Magazine Collection, one of the most extensive of its kind in the United States.
[8]
[9] Bendorf is a fellow of the
CantoMundo Poetry Workshop.
Career
Bendorf's poetry publications include the book The Spectral Wilderness
[10] , selected by
Mark Doty for the 2013 Stan & Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and released by
Kent State University Press in 2015,
[11] and Advantages of Being Evergreen , which was selected for the 2018 Open Book Poetry Competition from
Cleveland State University Poetry Center and published in September 2019.
[12] American poet
Gabrielle Calvocoressi called Advantages of Being Evergreen "an essential book for our time and for all time" and wrote that "Baez Bendorf is making a future grammar for the moment all of our vessels are free and held. I am living for the world these poems anticipate… This is a book of the earth’s abiding wonder. And the body’s unbreakable ability to bloom."
[13]
His third book of poems, Consider the Rooster , will be published by
Nightboat Books in 2024.
[14]
His work has appeared in publications including Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day ,
[15] American Poetry Review ,
[16] BOMB,
[17] Black Warrior Review ,
[18] jubilat ,
[19] Poetry Magazine ,
[20] and
Troubling the Line : Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.
[21] He has published essays
[22] and
comics poetry ,
[23] in addition to poetry, and his poetry has been translated into Russian by
Dmitry Kuzmin .
[24]
He has taught poetry and creative writing at
University of Wisconsin-Madison , 826DC,
Madison Public Library ,
District of Columbia Public Schools ,
Mount Holyoke College , Wick Poetry Center,
Kalamazoo College ,
[25] Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference,
[26] and elsewhere.
[27]
Bendorf is a
transgender man , and has used his work to discuss
gender identity and
transition , sometimes in humorous ways.
[28]
[29] He is of German, Southern Italian, and Puerto Rican ancestry.
[30]
In 2020, Bendorf was awarded the
Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award from
Publishing Triangle , presented to an LGBTQ writer who has shown exceptional talent and promise.
[31]
[32] Bendorf was a 2021
National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.
[33] In 2021, he joined the poetry faculty of the low-residency MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
[34]
Awards and honors
Works
References
^
"Bendorf, Oliver, 1987-" .
Library of Congress . Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
^
"Oliver Baez Bendorf" . Oliver Baez Bendorf . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^ Sahaidachny, Rachel (2016-07-12).
"The Spectral Wilderness / Oliver Bendorf" . thesoutheastreview . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^ Bendorf, Oliver Baez (21 January 2014).
"After I Came Out As A Transgender Man, I Was Asked If It Felt Like I Had Died" . BuzzFeed . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^
"An Interview With Oliver Baez Bendorf | Poets & Writers" . www.pw.org . 6 September 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^
"Graduate Creative Writing Faculty" . creativewriting.wisc.edu . Archived from
the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2019-11-29 .
^ Mears, Jaime (February 22, 2017).
"Assembling the Whole: An Interview with Librarian|Artist Oliver Baez Bendorf" . The Signal . Library of Congress. Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^
"Little Magazine Interview Index – UW Digital Collections" . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"The Oliver Bendorf Exit Interview" . Little Magazine Collection . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"The Spectral Wilderness - The Kent State University Press" . www.kentstateuniversitypress.com . Retrieved 2017-06-08 .
^
"2013 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Awarded to Oliver Bendorf | Kent State University" . www.kent.edu . Retrieved 2017-06-08 .
^
"2018 Book Contest Results" . Cleveland State University Poetry Center . 27 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"Advantages of Being Evergreen" . Cleveland State University Poetry Center . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^
"Queers in Winter with Oliver Baez Bendorf, Michael V. Smith and Hazel Jane Plante (on Zoom)" . Creative Writing . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^ Baez Bendorf, Oliver (2017-12-18).
"Evergreen" . Evergreen . Retrieved 2018-04-17 .
^
"American Poetry Review - Oliver Baez Bendorf - "River I Dream About" " . American Poetry Review . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"BOMB 147 / Spring 2019" . shop.bombmagazine.org . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"Ritual by Oliver Baez Bendorf | BWR" . BWR . 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2018-04-17 .
^
"Number 24 - jubilat" . www.jubilat.org . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^ Magazine, Poetry (2019-04-02).
"Bone Dust by Oliver Baez Bendorf" . Poetry Foundation . Retrieved 2019-04-02 .
^
"The Body of the Poem: On Transgender Poetry - Los Angeles Review of Books" . Los Angeles Review of Books . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^ Bendorf, Oliver (21 January 2014).
"After I Came Out As A Transgender Man, I Was Asked If It Felt Like I Had Died" . BuzzFeed . Retrieved 2018-01-04 .
^
"Spotlight: A Poetry Comics Discussion" . The Rumpus.net . 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2018-01-04 .
^ Бендорф, Оливер (2018).
"Квирные факты об овощах" . Воздух (in Russian). Retrieved March 20, 2021 .
^
"English: Faculty and Staff. Kalamazoo College" . reason.kzoo.edu . Retrieved 2018-08-29 .
^
"Faculty and Guests | Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences" . www.middlebury.edu . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^
"Events" . Oliver Baez Bendorf . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^ Bendorf, Oliver (January 20, 2014).
"After I Came Out As A Transgender Man, I Was Asked If It Felt Like I Had Died" .
BuzzFeed . Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
^ Rodriguez, Mathew (September 23, 2016).
"In Oliver Bendorf's 'Top Surgery' zine, a trans man uses humor to recover — and to educate" .
Mic.com . Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
^
"Settler/Unsettled by Oliver Baez Bendorf - BOMB Magazine" . bombmagazine.org . 25 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-07 .
^
"Publishing Triangle Awards Finalists, Yiyun Li's Virtual Book Club, and More" . Poets & Writers . 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-18 .
^
"Oliver Baez Bendorf Wins Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award" . The Publishing Triangle . 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-18 .
^
"National Endowment for the Arts Supports the Arts with over $27.5 Million in Awards in First Round of FY2021 Funding" . www.arts.gov . 4 February 2021. Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^ Caleb (2022-05-27).
"Oliver Baez Bendorf" . MFA Program for Writers | Warren Wilson . Retrieved 2023-02-11 .
^
"National Endowment for the Arts Supports the Arts with over $27.5 Million in Awards in First Round of FY2021 Funding" . www.arts.gov . 4 February 2021. Retrieved 2021-02-19 .
^
"Publishing Triangle Awards Finalists, Yiyun Li's Virtual Book Club, and More" . Poets & Writers . 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-18 .
^
"Oliver Baez Bendorf | the Gospel According to X" . 8 January 2019.
^
"2018 Book Contest Results" . Cleveland State University Poetry Center . Retrieved 2018-08-29 .
^
"WI Institute for Creative Writing Fellowships" . WI Institute for Creative Writing . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^
"Oliver Bendorf, selected by Natalie Diaz - Poetry Society of America" . www.poetrysociety.org . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^
"Bear Deluxe Magazine" . www.facebook.com . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^
"2013 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Awarded to Oliver Bendorf | Kent State University" . www.kent.edu . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^ Daily, Verse.
"About Oliver Bendorf and The Journal" . www.versedaily.org . Retrieved 2017-06-07 .
^ Bendorf, Oliver Baez (2021-10-19).
"I Just Chose My Place and Let the Circle Form Around Me" .
ISSN
0027-8378 . Retrieved 2023-07-20 .
^
" "Impervious" by Oliver Baez Bendorf - The Cincinnati Review" . www.cincinnatireview.com . 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2023-07-20 .
^
"American Poetry Review - Oliver Baez Bendorf - "River I Dream About" " . American Poetry Review . Retrieved 2023-07-20 .
^
"BOMB Magazine | Settler/Unsettled" . BOMB Magazine . 2019-06-25. Retrieved 2023-07-20 .