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 and/or PhD in Creative Writing or 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 more random interests in ancient Eastern poetry, for example, from the T’ang Dynasty, as well as the Slovenian movement headed by Peter Semolic called “The New Simplicity” which uses evocative imagery with minimalist style. My main research interests involve the field of Aesthetics, including questions like what is beauty and how important is beauty in poetry. 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, in which poets branched out experimentally in ways which directly help catalyze the Modernist movement, as is evident by the lives of Hardy and Hopkins. The poets that I take for inspiration in my writing, or rather, that I have both studied and enjoyed, include Edgar Allan Poe, Dylan Thomas, W. B. Yeats, Li Bai, Thomas Hardy, Gerard Hopkins, Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and A. R. Ammons. I am also interested in French poetry, especially that of the surrealists. I aim to specialize in the poetry of Dylan Thomas.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
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) - 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
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Wolcott High School - GED (2017-2021) Wolcott, CT
Salutatorian of the Class of 2021
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
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 oldest 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
Short Stories:
“A Grain of Man” in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Aphelion
Chapbooks and Collections:
Vale, my debut chapbook, published by Kelsay Books in the summer of 2024
Prizes and Awards:
Runner-Up for WritersDomain Summer Poetry Contest 2023
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Articles
Who is Hang Kang, Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Exploring Cornell’s MFA in Creative Writing First-Year Reading Series
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Readings / Events
Marginalia Review Open Mic - October 2024, Cornell University
Fall 2024 Ammons Reading - December 2024, Cornell University
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————