Home
"I am his Master's dog at Kew--
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"
— Alexander Pope
Biography
Mary Christine Delea (who went by “Chris” until college, when she became “Christine”) was born in Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, and grew up in West Islip, on the South Shore of Long Island in New York. Her first claim to fame was a photo taken by a local newspaper photographer in front of the West Islip Public Library.
After graduating from West Islip High School in 1978, Christine attended Marietta College in Ohio, receiving a BA with two majors: English and Psychology-Sociology. Her MA in English is from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia; for this degree, Christine wrote two theses: a collection of poems, and a critical thesis on Shirley Jackson. Her terminal degree, a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of North Dakota, was awarded in 1996.
Besides the states listed above, Christine has also lived in Maine, Mississippi, Colorado, and Kentucky; she currently lives in Oregon where she has developed a taste for Oregon wine and a passion for quilting. Being dragged along with her, or dragging her along with him, is her husband, Mel White. They share their home with 5 cats, all from Kentucky: Banshee, Zombie, Ouija, Angel, and Horus. Her brother Will, his wife Sarah, and their son live in Illinois, and her parents live in the house Christine grew up in, enjoying retirement from high school teaching.
Christine has worked in numerous jobs as well: college professor, Poet-in-the-Schools, social worker, substitute teacher, retail manager, domestic violence shelter advocate, and freelance editor, to name a few. She has conducted workshops in poetry for groups of all ages, and has lectured on different aspects of poetry in a variety of settings.
Christine's poems have been published in numerous places. Awards won for poetry include the 2001 Editor's Poetry Prize from the Spoon River Poetry Review, First Prize in the 2001 White Mice contest sponsored by Deus Loci, two Pushcart Prize nominations, and an Academy of American Poets University Award.
(For a complete list of Delea’s poetry awards, click here.)
Besides her love of and commitment to poetry and cats, Christine also shares her life with quilts. Her quilts are, for the most part, her own original designs. One of her most recent quilts won Third Place in the Clackamas County Fair.
It’s not often that I take a photo of an actual thing that has inspired a poem. Below is a poem from my book, The Skeleton Holding Up the Sky, and the photo of the sight that inspired the poem.
EARLY EVENING
The buzzards land by the dozens,
roost in dead trees
behind my sister-in-law’s house.
They make no noise.
They are the small talk of this
Georgia county, but I am
a visitor: I continue to stare
as my hosts start to lose interest.
Sometimes a few circle,
wings spread like a child
preparing to hug a tree,
and I wonder why: searching
for food or just stretching?
Do I look like food?
In the dark winter morning,
I stand on the back porch,
smoking, careful to make no noise
and wake the others.
The huge black shapes are still,
perched in silhouette,
almost blending into the horizon.
I like to think that they wait,
as I do, for the sun to rise,
the day to begin. We all understand
the difference between life
and death, and those moving
from one to the other.
I put out one cigarette
and light another.
from The Skeleton Holding Up the Sky
