C. Walker

walkerPoetry.cp@gmail.com ~ Caidan Walker Pilarski

Professional Summary

I am a practiced writer with 7+ years of experience, various published poems, and a debut chapbook. I have editing experience via my literary clubs at university, as well as my personal endeavors. I am the Editor-in-Chief and founder of Lucky Lizard Journal, an egalitarian journal publishing twice a year, with the occasional contest. I founded the YouTube channel The Auditory Poetry Collection with the goal of maintaining a collection of poems that can be both read and listened to online. I am a member of the Society of Classical Poets (MSCP). I am currently at Cornell University studying English Literature and Creative Writing, also having pursued Physics and Cosmology. I have involved myself with Rainy Day, Cornell’s oldest undergraduate literary magazine, Marginalia Review, Cornell’s undergraduate poetry magazine, Logos, Cornell’s undergraduate philosophy journal, and The Cornell Daily Sun, the oldest continuously independent college daily in the nation. I aim to eventually obtain an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Literature. My academic and personal focus is on poetry spanning the 19th and 20th centuries; I have keen interest in everything from the Romantics through Modernists. I hold some motley interests in ancient Eastern poetry, for example, from the T’ang Dynasty, as well as contemporary Slovenian poetry, in particular the poetry of Peter Semolic which utilizes evocative imagery with minimalist style. My main academic research interests involve the field of Aesthetics, including questions like what is beauty and how important is beauty in poetry. I have recently found interest in arguments on beauty and theism headed by Aristotle and Swinburne. I am also heavily interested in period categorization and hold the belief that we should define the period of the late 1800’s as a Pre-Modern or Decadence period (which includes the Aesthetic movement), in which poets branched out experimentally in ways which directly help catalyze the Modernist era, as is evident by the lives of Hardy and Hopkins in particular. The poets that I am most drawn to include Dylan Thomas, Yeats, and Eliot, but the list of writers that have influenced me is incredibly long, including poets such as Wallace Stevens, Li Bai, Thomas Hardy, Gerard Hopkins, Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, A. R. Ammons, William Wordsworth, and Alice Fulton. I am also interested in French poetry, especially that of the surrealists. I aim to do more academic work with Dylan Thomas. I am inspired by the Lake Poets and Symbolists, reviving styles reminiscent of the early to mid-Modernist period while embracing the “Poelectic” movement.
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Education

Cornell University - B.A. in English Literature, Minor in Creative Writing (2021-2025) Ithaca, NY

Extracurricular Activities:

Rainy Day undergraduate literary magazine
- Editorial Board (January 2023 to Present)
- Poetry Editor (August 2023 to Present)
- Editor-in-Chief (December 2024 to Present)
Logos undergraduate philosophy journal
- Editorial Board (January 2023 to May 2023 / January 2025 to May 2025) - JOURNAL
Marginalia Review undergraduate poetry magazine
- Editorial Board (January 2024 to Present)
The Cornell Daily Sun - the nation’s oldest continuously independent college daily
- Arts & Culture Contributer (August 2024 to Present)
- Arts & Culture Staff Writer (December 2024 to Present)

Relevant Coursework:

ENGL 2800: Creative Writing / ASIAN 2230: Intro to China / ENGL 4030: Poetry in Process / ENGL 2010: Literatures in English 1 / ENGL 2754: Wondrous Literatures of the Near East / ENGL 3500: The High Modernist Tradition / ENGL 2690: American Poetry Since 1850 / ENGL 3460: Nineteenth Century British and American Poetry - Wordsworth to Dickinson / ENGL 3820: Narrative Writing / ENGL 3840: Poetry Writing / ENGL 3910: Poetry and Poetics of the Americas

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Wolcott High School - GED (2017-2021) Wolcott, CT

Salutatorian of the Class of 2021

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Published Works

Poetry:

“Tranquil” and “Ode To The Perfect” in the Spring 2023 volume of Outrageous Fortune, Mary Baldwin College’s undergraduate literary magazine
“Amadeus” in the May 2023 volume of Aphelion, an online science fiction and fantasy literary magazine
“To The Sun” in the Spring 2023 volume of Cornell University’s Marginalia Review
“This is What You Want to Hear” in the Fall 2023 edition of Third Wednesday
“Latibule” in The RavensPerch, an award-winning literary magazine, July 2023
“Ruby-Sighted God” in the Q3 2023 edition of The Aerial Perspective (Quillkeeper’s Press)
“Bleeding Fingers” in Black Poppy Review, October 2023
“Antigravity” in Issue 25 of The Round, a literary magazine based at Brown University
“Dawn” in Issue 1 of The Sun Zine
“The Sorcerer” and “Frozen Eve” in Issue 107 of Black Petals Magazine
“To The Heart-Shaped Roses In Your Garden” in the Spring 2024 volume of Cornell University’s Marginalia Review
“A Drunkard’s Ballad” in the Spring 2024 issue of The Raven Review
“By The Chisel That You Take” in the Fall 2024 issue of Rainy Day, Cornell University’s undergraduate literary magazine
“A Swing on a Sweet Cherry Tree” and “Under The Starlight” in Masticadores Istanbul, August 2024
“A Sojourn in Toronto” in Issue 16 of Home Planet News
“Dusk” in The Society of Classical Poets, September 2024
“Chile” in the Fall 2024 issue of October Hill Magazine
“Ol’ Missy Malibu” and “To Rustle The Fussle” in the Spring 2025 issue of Rainy Day
“An Ode to a Hymn” in The Society of Classical Poets, March 2025