Christakos was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario. She is a Canadian poet, fiction author, literary essayist and creative writing instructor. Since 1989, she has published ten collections of poetry, a novel, an intergenre memoir including photography, numerous chapbooks and has appeared in a diverse range of literary journals and anthologies. Christakos received her B.F.A. in Visual Arts from York University in 1985. She lived in Montreal from 1985 to 1987, settling in Toronto in 1988. She went on to pursue an M.A. in Education from OISE in the History and Philosophy of Education in 1995. Christakos held a teaching position at OCAD from 1992-1997. From 2004-2005 she was the University of Windsor's Canada CouncilWriter in Residence. Additionally, she worked under PEN Canada in the political interests of exiled writers and has contributed to numerous poetry publications and events. She was an editor with Fireweed, with Women's Education des femmes, and with MIX: the magazine of artist-run culture. She worked for several years with Canadian high school students through the Writers In Electronic Residence program and with adult students in the Creative WritingCertificate program at The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. From 2006-2011 she taught poetry and creative writing courses as well as designed and ran the poetry course Influency: A Toronto Poetry Salon. She was Publishing Editor of the online poetics magazine Influencysalon.ca. She is Associate Faculty with the Creative Writing MFA at University of Guelph-Humber. In 2016-2017 she was Canada Council Writer in Residence at Western University. In 2017-2018 she was Writer in Residence at the University of Alberta. In the 2018-2019 academic year she is Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto's University College. She identifies as bisexual.
Work
Many writers have influenced Christakos' appreciation of literature. She has mentioned Nicole Brossard, Marguerite Duras, Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, and Kathy Acker, among others. Christakos writes about the fluid and intersecting lines of sexuality and identity. In addition, she explores gender and motherhood in her work. She has shown an interest in recombinant poetics as well as in autobiography's formal and social concerns.
