C.E. Chaffin Reads at the Sacramento Poetry Center

Presents

C. E. Chaffin
Monday June 8, 2009 at 7:30 PM
HQ for the Arts
1719 25th Street
Host: Emmanuel Sigauke


Craig Erick Chaffin goes by his initials because he doesn't like his first name, though he is trying to make peace with it now. Born in Ventura, California, in 1954, he graduated from UCLA in 1976, Summa Cum Laudanum, winning the top honors award in English, The Edward Niles Hooker Award, though he was not in the honors program. He later taught Family Medicine at UCI and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians before the age of 40. Due to chronic spinal pain and manic-depression, he elected to retire on disability from medicine in his early 40s, which led to his discovery of the literary internet.

He published, and edited, The Melic Review: a journal that distinguished itself not only by its content but through the work of poets at its board in winning and/or placing in the InterBoard Poetry Competition repeatedly. He has won one poetry contest (Desert Moon Review, 2002) and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in By Rose and Thorn. He quit counting publications several years ago but has been the featured poet in various journals over twenty times. He also keeps a blog, and provides tutoring through an intensive, fee-based, online poetry course. Anyone who is interested in becoming a student should email C. E. Chaffin for information

In addition to poetry and criticism, Dr. Chaffin has published fiction and been a regular columnist for three magazines. Married to Kathleen Chaffin, he lives in Mendocino in Northern California where he enjoys his four children and one grandchild.

He is the author of two books Elementary (Mellen Poetry Press 1997) and Unexpected Light (Diminuendo Press 2009).