Christopher Salerno (born June 13, 1975) is an American Poet, Editor of Saturnalia Books, and Professor of Creative Writing at William Paterson University. He is the author of five poetry collections, and four chapbooks of poems. A forthcoming book, “The Man Grave,” has been selected as the winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Poetry Prize, and will be published by Persea Books in 2021. His most recently published book, “Sun & Urn,” was selected by Thomas Lux for the Georgia Poetry Prize and was published in early 2017 by the University of Georgia Press. “ATM,” selected by D.A. Powell for the 2013 Georgetown Review Poetry Prize, was published in 2014. His second book, “Minimum Heroic,” was selected by Dara Wier for the Mississippi Review Poetry Prize in 2010. Other honors include the 2013 Midwest/Laurel Review Prize for a chapbook of poems, “Automatic Teller,” the Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize for a chapbook of poems, “Deathbed Sext,” a Glenna Luschei award from Prairie Schooner, the Founders Prize from Rhino Magazine, as well as a NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant.

His trade book for beginning poets, “How To Write Poetry: A Guided Journal,” is out from Callisto Media, and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and elsewhere.

His poetry has been published in literary journals and magazines including The New York Times, New Republic, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Guernica, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Conduit, Rhino, Los Angeles Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Jubilat, The Journal, American Letters and Commentary, and others. His poems have regularly appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ “Poem-A-Day” series.

Born in Somerville, NJ, Salerno has lived in Cazenovia, NY, Greenville, NC, Raleigh, NC, and Caldwell, NJ. He received his MA from East Carolina University and his MFA from Bennington College in Vermont. He currently resides in Caldwell, NJ and teaches as a Professor of Creative Writing in the BA and MFA programs at William Paterson University where he co-founded and co-edits Map Literary, a literary magazine supported by William Paterson University’s English Department.