Christopher Martin, the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year in Memoir, is author of This Gladdening Light, published by Mercer University Press and recipient of the Will D. Campbell Award in Creative Nonfiction. He is also author of three poetry chapbooks and recipient of the George Scarbrough Poetry Prize. Chris teaches composition and literature at Kennesaw State and creative nonfiction at the Appalachian Young Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in publications across the country, including On Being, Shambhala Sun (now Lion's Roar), McSweeney's, and Thrush. He is available for readings, workshops, and other events. Chris's blog on creative nonfiction, Stay in No Realms: Seeking and Essaying, is available at the Georgia Writers Association.
With the eye of a poet and heart of a saint, Christopher Martin explores a theology of love in this honest, gritty, and transcendent book. /// Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and The Seed Underground
It is extraordinary that this insightful work comes from a young writer, whose reflections on religion, nature, literature, and family create a synthesis of ideas and imagery that is as pleasurable to read as it is effecting. /// Anthony Grooms, author of The Vain Conversation and Bombingham
Steeped in the physical and political environs of the American south and spiritually inheriting from both Thoreau's Walden and Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, This Gladdening Light is a poignant, lyrical, and heartfelt expression of the divinity within our planet and ourselves. /// Guatam Narula, author of Remain Free
Martin speaks with an unfettered heart about family, nature, life, and death in a beautiful collection of essays that are both relatable and poignant. He is bold in articulating what many of us think, but maybe are too afraid to say. /// Cristina M. Martin, founding editor of Loose Change Magazine
