Ten years later, in 2015, Siken published his second collection of poems, War of the Foxes, with Copper Canyon Press. The book was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In her forward to Siken’s book, Glück praised the “driving, apocalyptic power” of the poems, as well as their “purgatorial recklessness.” Library Journal described the poems as “vital, immediate, and cinematic in scope.” Crush went on to win a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Thom Gunn Award, another award for gay male poetry. In 2005, Yale University Press officially published Crush. Past winners include Adrienne Rich and John Ashbery. The award goes to a young poet who has yet to publish a collection of poems.

Created in 1918, the prize represents the longest-running literary honor in the United States. In 2004, when Siken was in his thirties, his poetry collection Crush was selected by Louise Glück for Yale’s Younger Poets Prize. Spork makes its books by hand and has published contemporary poets like Ariana Reines and Paul Legault.

In addition to poetry, Siken makes films, paints, and runs a small press and literary journal called Spork. (In the same interview, Siken admits to sometimes providing misleading information about himself.) In a 2018 interview with the poetry podcast ' Commonplace,' Siken said he wasn’t a social worker, but he did work at a group home for adults with a dual diagnosis. In a 2006 profile for the Poetry Foundation, Siken was described as a social worker. (Before Siken’s dad died, Siken’s dad admitted that he killed his first wife.) At the University of Arizona, Siken earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MFA in poetry. His mom was a therapist, and his dad was a lawyer.

He apparently grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Richard Siken’s biographical particulars are elusive and difficult to verify.

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