Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

Poet, writer, and slam performer Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz was born and raised in Philadelphia. As a sophomore at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, she became interested in poetry slams and cofounded the weekly series NYC-Urbana Poetry Slam, still held at the Bowery Poetry Club. Her collections of poetry include Dear Future Boyfriend (2007, 2011), Hot Teen Slut (2001, 2011), Working Class Represent (2007, 2011), Oh, Terrible Youth (2007), Everything Is Everything (2010), and The Year of No Mistakes (2013).
 
Aptowicz’s nonfiction books include Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (2008) and Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (2014). Her interest in Mütter, an early American pioneer in plastic surgery and founder of the medical museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, led her to write the screenplay Mütter (2003), which won a screenwriting award at the Philadelphia Film Festival and a Sloan Foundation Fellowship.
 
In 2010, Aptowicz was named the ArtsEdge writer-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she has performed her work at international venues that include the Sydney Opera House, the Gasworks Art Complex in Melbourne, Australia, and the Largo Theater in Los Angeles. She was a 2013 writer-in-residence at the Amy Clampitt House.