Andrew Demcak

Andrew Demcak is an award-winning American poet and novelist, the author of nine poetry collections and eight Young Adult novels. His books have been featured by The American Library Association, The Lambda Literary Foundation, The Best American Poetry, Verse Daily, and Kirkus Reviews. He was selected to be the keynote speaker for the California Library Association's annual conference to celebrate his contributions to LGBTQ+ Young Adult literature. He was a finalist for the prestigious Dorset Prize for Poetry, the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and also the Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence in Poetry. He won the Three Candle Press Open Book Award for his first poetry collection, Catching Tigers in Red Weather (2007). His first play, The Inevitable Crunch Factor, won the Cal Arts' New Playwrights Series and was cast and produced in a multi-week run. His work has also been nominated for the [CLMP] Firecracker Award, Pushcart Prize, Lambda Award, Thom Gunn Poetry Award, both the California and Northern California Book Awards, Best of the Web, and others.

He has an M. F. A. in English/Creative Writing from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA , where he studied with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Michael Palmer, Carol Snow, Frank Bidart, Gary Snyder, Charles Wright, and Sharon Olds. He is also a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, where he studied with Galway Kinnell, Richard Howard, Luci Tapahanso and Lucille Clifton. His poems, including Young Man With iPod (Poetry Midwest, #13), are taught at Ohio State University as part of both its English 110.02 class, "The Genius and the Madman," and in its "American Poetry Since 1945" class. At the age of 23, Andrew published his first chapbook, The Psalms (Big 23 Press), which was favorably reviewed by Dr. Clifton Snider in the Small Press Review (issue 226, vol. 23, no. 11.)

Andrew currently lives in a greener suburb of Los Angeles, CA with his husband, two parents, a few ghosts, and their three cats, Tommy, Charlie, and Stevie.

Citations: "Andrew Demcak." Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2017. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com. Accessed 27 May 2026

WorldCat Author Identities: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=dem... 

OCLC Author Authority file: http://viaf.org/viaf/88547073/