christian butterfield

Christian Butterfield is an undergraduate poet & essayist from Bowling Green, Kentucky. In 2019, he was appointed by the Library of Congress as the National Student Poet of the Southeast, America’s highest honor for young poets. His work has been featured in North American Review, The Kenyon Review, ONLY POEMS and more. As a competitor on Western Kentucky University's historic Speech & Debate Team, he earned national championships in Impromptu, Extemp, Informative and After-Dinner Speaking. He currently works as a freelance writing & public-speaking educator for K-12 students.He absolutely adores you! Yes! You! He’s speaking directly to you in particular!!!

selected publications

Eight Poems in ONLY POEMS as Poet of the Week

  • you cannot write an autism poem

  • Pornography is a theater of types, never of individuals

  • The Wikipedia List of Unsolvable Problems and their Corresponding Solutions

  • And Another Apocalypse

  • Meryl Streep

  • For A Brief Bout of Childhood, I Developed an Intense Autistic Hyperfixation on Doomsday Preppers & Lowkey… I Started Rooting For The Apocalypse.

  • Sonnet Written in Person-First Language

  • Ars Poetica???

Father As Circular Logic Puzzle in Adroit Journal

  • Finalist for the 2023 Adroit Prizes for Poetry, judged by Natalie Diaz

Blue Whale Challenge in Kenyon Review

  • Runner-Up for the 2021 Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest, selected by Roxane Gay

Industrial Complex in North American Review

Confessional Booth as staged by The WKU New Works Festival

Lullaby in The Lumiere Review

  • Runner-Up in the 2021 Lumiere Prize for Poetry, judged by Yanyi and Cathy Linh Che

Dear Kurt Hummel, I Hate You in Best Teen Writing of 2019

speeches & other works

Interview with ONLY POEMS as Poet of the Week

Informative Speaking: Autistic Literary Criticism

  • 2nd at ASC Nationals

Rhetorical Criticism: In Defense of Drag Syndrome

  • Runner-Up at NFA Nationals and IFA Internationals

Glory in Bygone Days: Beowulf & Alt-Right Medievalism in The Ashen Egg

After Dinner Speaking: On Neuroqueerness

  • National Champion at PKD and ASC Nationals, 3rd at NFA Nationals

How Sumana Roy Became A Tree in COUNTERCLOCK Journal

In Defense of Electra Heart in The Farside Review

Other Selected Speeches

  • Informative Speaking: The Lead Generation (4th at NFA Nationals)

  • Persuasive Speaking: The Autistic Suicide Rate (4th at NFA Nationals)

  • Rhetorical Criticsm: World of T-Shirts & Snuff Viewership (2nd as ASC Nationals)

  • Program of Oral Interp: Applied Behavioral Analysis (2nd at ASC Nationals)

  • After-Dinner Speaking: The Autistic Unemployment Rate (1st at ASC and IFA Nationals)

  • Program of Oral Interp: Autism Moms (3rd at PKD Nationals)

  • Sample Impromptu and Extemp Speeches (1st at ASC Nationals)