C. A. Conrad

CAConrad was born January 1, 1966, in Topeka, Kansas, and grew up in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.^[2] Their mother was a fourteen-year-old runaway and their father was a Vietnam War veteran. Their mother married three times.^[2]

Conrad was bullied as a child and stated in the feature film documentary, The Book of Conrad (2015), "People called me ‘faggot’ more than they called me my name."^[4]

Conrad is known for using and inventing the poetic form of "[Soma]tics."^[5] This form is a sort of writing prompt/personal exercise in being engaged in the present moment.

Conrad was one of the two poets in the short film, I Hope I'm Loud When I'm Dead (2018) by filmmaker Beatrice Gibson, also featured was poet Eileen Myles.^[6][7][8]

Conrad was a 2014 Lannan Fellow, a 2013 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2011 Pew Fellow, they also conduct workshops on (Soma)tic poetry and Ecopoetics.^[9][10] Their book While Standing in Line for Death won a 2018 Lambda Book Award.^[11] Amanda Paradise: Resurrect Extinct Vibration received a 2022 PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Award. In 2022, they were awarded a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement in poetry.^[12]

In 2019, Conrad cancelled their planned appearance at the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York because of the organizations support of artist Tobias Madison, who was accused of domestic violence.^[13]

Conrad teaches poetry at Columbia University and the Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam.^[3]

Conrad identifies as Queer.^[14][11] In 1998, Conrad's boyfriend Mark Holmes (aka. Earth) was violently murdered in Tennessee.^[2][15][4]