By Christie Gardiner
Though she was not my child, though the river where it happened was miles away, though today’s sun kisses me like a mother, I cannot rest. Upstream, my own children wade, windchime voices dampened by the creek. The summoning sound of stream water slipping over stones calls my attention. I see her phantom face again, here in vacant water; her body, pink and perfect, placed across a stone. She died while I was hiking with a friend, killed as the sky gathered into storm clouds. Revenant in the river, what could I have done?
Christie Gardiner is an award-winning author, poet, writer, and performer. Her literary oeuvre includes four ecumenical books (one, currently in its ninth printing), four anthologies, journal publications, booklets, articles, and the writing of her own videocast/podcast. Additionally, Christie has made numerous appearances as a regular media contributor, has cohosted two successful podcasts and serves as a facilitator of writing groups for women. She worked in poetry acquisition for Inscape literary journal, holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Utah Valley University and is an MFA student at Brigham Young University. Recent and upcoming publication credits includes poems and essays in, Humana Obscura, Ever Arriving: The Poetry of Travel, The Dewdrop, Wild Greens Magazine, Reverie Magazine, Inscape Literary Journal, and Wild Roof Journal. She has received generous support from Craigardan Artist Residency in 2024, the New York Writers Institute in 2023, Utah’s Best in State Nonfiction award in 2020, the Ivory Futures Award 2022-2023 and the Capitol Reef Field Station 2023.
