Chris Forhan (1959 - )
BIOGRAPHY
Chris Forhan made his literary debut publishing verse in periodicals, and has published two chapbooks,
Crumbs of Bread and
X. His 1999 title,
Forgive Us Our Happiness, won the Bakeless Literary Publications Prize for poetry sponsored by the Breadloaf Writers' Conference in Middlebury, Vermont. This work, which a
Kirkus Reviews critic described as a "compendium of the styles and themes common among first-time poets," presents readers with poems that vary in style and tone. According to the critic, some are humorous, others are self-indulgent, others are abstract, and some possess "startling diction and imagery." Some of the poems acknowledge such well-known poets as Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and Charles Wright. A
Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the author's "happiness is mediated by wry glances at the mythic . . . and the demotic." The
Kirkus Reviews critic recognized as the high point of
Forgive Us Our Happiness the elegy Forhan wrote for his father, judging it to be "surprisingly sharp."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
WRITINGS:
- Crumbs of Bread (chap book), March Street Press, 1993.
- Forgive Us Our Happiness, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1999.
- X (chap book), Floating Bridge Press (Seattle, WA), 2000.
Works have been included in anthologies, including
The New American Poets, University Press of New England, 2000. Contributor of poems to periodicals, including
Poetry, Ploughshares, New England Review, Parnassus, Prairie Schooner, Willow Springs, Artful Dodge, and
Fine Madness.
FURTHER READINGS
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PERIODICALS
- Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 1999, review of Forgive Us Our Happiness, pp. 1677-1678.
- Publishers Weekly, July 26, 1999, review of Forgive Us Our Happiness, p. 87.
= First appeared in Poetry magazine.
