Christopher Matuszak is a three-time poetry contest winner, with awards totaling $30,000. They have been crafting stories since age eight, honing their narrative skills as a Dungeon Master for fifteen years, where they specialized in morally complex characters and psychological horror campaigns. Growing up with a family member diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder gave them intimate insight into fractured psyches and the masks people wear to survive—themes that permeate their dark fiction. As a tour bus driver for performing artists, they've crisscrossed the US and Canada, collecting stories from the road and observing how people perform different versions of themselves. Being on the water, surrounded in nature, or in quiet coastal towns fuels their darker imaginings.
During the span of time when Poetry.com was vibrant and ran several contests (pre 2009 before Lulu took over, when the "International Library of Poetry" still ran it). Christopher Matuszak won 3 top prizes for his poetry. Each poem that won awarded $10,000. Out of approximately 200 poems he submitted over the course of 7 years, 3 of those poems won the top prize. Several others of his poems won honorable mentions and placed within the top 25 tier each time.
Riches to Rags was a poem about how life can take unexpected turns. We can easily go from Rags to Riches and from Riches to Rags. This applies to all areas of our lives, not just financially but love, family, friends, and any thing you can imagine.
Hyperspace was a poem about the internet consuming our lives, the increasing pace of life around us, and the easy access to information. This poem took a deep look at what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world.
Who Am I? was a poem about looking inward to yourself. It posed the question of who we are and also issued a statement of finding yourself and not following others.
Who am I?
I am me.
Whoever that is,
It's who I am supposed to be.