Christopher Shillock was born in Lisbon,
Portugal in 1940. He grew up in South America and Europe where his parents
served in the US Foreign Service. He has a BA in Spanish from Haverford
College and a MA in philosophy from the City University of New York.
In 1972 he moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota.
During the 1980’s he was active in various
Communist and Anarchist groups where an unerring instinct led him to the losing side in every factional dispute. Since then he has adopted the working hypothesis that the creative life is itself a radical act in a world dedicated to ignorance and exploitation.
Christopher presents himself in a number of media, on stage, archived on web-tv, recorded on a cd-rom video and, most recently, on a cd of his songs and poems. He writes in English, Spanish and French and has translated poetry from those languages as well as from Latin, Greek, Coptic and Guarani.
He lives in a small room in downtown Minneapolis, surrounded by his books. In 2003 Christopher received a Verve grant from SASE and the Jerome Foundation. He has three sons and three grandchildren.
