C. E. Chaffin stands for Craig Erick Chaffin. He goes by his initials because he doesn't like his first name, though he is trying to make peace with it now. Born in Ventura, California, in 1954, he turned 52 in October 2006 and has white in his beard to prove it. He graduated from UCLA in 1976, Summa Cum Laudanum, Fine-Bit-of-Krappa, winning the top honors award in English, The Edward Niles Hooker Award, though he was not in the honors program. He received other awards in medical school, in psychiatric residency, and later as a medical director, not worth listing in a literary bio. He taught Family Medicine at UCI and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians before the age of 40. Due to chronic spinal pain and manic-depression, he elected to retire on disability from medicine in his early 40s, which led to his discovery of the literary internet.
His one and only book, Elementary (Poems), Mellen Press, 1997, is out of print, as is The Best of Melic, 2003, which he edited. He published and edited The Melic Review (www.melicreview.com,) for eight years until its recent extended hiatus, a journal that has distinguished itself not only by its content but through the work of poets at its board in winning and/or placing in the InterBoard Poetry Competition repeatedly. He has won one poetry contest (Desert Moon Review, 2002) and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in by Rose and Thorn. He quit counting publications several years ago but has been featured poet in journals over twenty times, and should one enter C. E. Chaffin in Google, about 40,000 references will appear. He also keeps a blog for any interested, and tutors an intensive online poetry course for a fee. Students may apply at C. E. Chaffin.
In addition to poetry and criticism Dr. Chaffin has published fiction and
been a regular columnist for three magazines. Married to Kathleen Chaffin,
a fine poet in her own right, they live in Northern California and together
have four children and a grandchild. Shoe size: same as mouth.