Nick Courtright

Nick Courtright (born 1981) is an American poet, scholar, and publisher. He is the author of the book of literary criticism In Perfect Silence at the Stars: Walt Whitman and the Meaning of Poems , and of the poetry collections The Forgotten World , Let There Be Light, Punchline, and the chapbook Elegy for the Builder's Wife. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, Boston Review, Massachusetts Review, Kenyon Review Online, Gulf Coast, New Orleans Review, The Literati Quarterly and many others.

He is also the Founder and Executive Editor of Atmosphere Press.

Life

Courtright was born and raised in northeast Ohio. He is the eldest of six children.

Career

2005–2019: Academic Career From 2005 to 2019, Courtright worked as a college educator, teaching English, creative writing, and literature at a range of public and private institutions. By 2025, the press had released over 1,300 titles spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, and children's literature. The book was inspired by William Blake, Walt Whitman, Federico García Lorca, and Wallace Stevens, as well as the Bhagavad Gita.

He is the author of several poetry collections, including The Forgotten World, Let There Be Light, and Punchline, each of which has received critical acclaim from established poets such as Eduardo C. Corral, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Timothy Donnelly. and the Meaning of Poems, explores the interpretation of poetry, with praise from poet and critic Donald Revell. Another praised the book's "the-universe-is-expanding soul-searching that's fueled insomniac nights for as long as that universe has had a name." It has also been called a "stunning first collection of poems, invok[ing] the everyday as a point of entry to compelling philosophical questions." Prior to the release of the book, the Best American Poetry website referred to Courtright's work as "vital stuff. This is real, and it’s happening right now."