Mark Bibbins

Mark Bibbins, born in Albany, New York, in 1968, received his BA at Hunter College and his MFA at The New School in Manhattan, where he has lived since 1991.

Bibbins is the author of four books of poetry: 13th Balloon (Copper Canyon Press, 2020); They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full (Copper Canyon Press, 2014); The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); and Sky Lounge (Graywolf Press, 2003), winner of a Lambda Literary Award.

Known for their sardonic wit, arresting titles, unmistakable sexuality, surprising range of references, and wild diversity of scope, Bibbins’s poems rise from the mania of politics, media, and pop culture and address it with no shortage of irony, humor, and condemnation.

“With a title that perfectly encapsulates its tone and potential energy, Bibbins harnesses his venom and directs it toward those social forces that serve to numb people to the violence of their stultified lives. There’s urgency even in its moments of quiet, and beauty in every explosion,” wrote Publishers Weekly, which named They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full one of the Best Books of 2014.

The recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry, Bibbins teaches in the graduate programs at Columbia University and The New School, where he cofounded LIT magazine, and in NYU’s Writers in Florence program.