Christine Andersen

Christine Andersen is a retired dyslexia specialis. She is a 2025 Pushcart nominee who has published over 140 poems and won the 2025 Jonathan Holden Poetry Chapbook Contest for "To Maggie Wherever You've Gone," the Distinguished Favorite for the 2025 NYC Big Book Award in poetry of grief and remembrance. She lives on a Connecticut farm with five hounds.

“Goodbye-Bye Leo Tolstoy,” “The Language of Trees,” and “I Detect Lord Byron”

I am finally admitting
that I am never going to read War and Peace.
I started a number of times,
printed out a cheat sheet with the cast of characters,
made many a tasty snack,
read to around page 100,
and each time abandoned the project.

“Streetlight,” “Sudden Branch Syndrome,” and “Clock”

I would wake and watch
from my bedroom window
as the snow fell in a waterfall of white
under the glow of the streetlight,
a suburban beacon shining
on my narrow side road.