Tread Upon will be published
by Copper Canyon Press on April 28, 2026.

From the publisher:

“Bold, incisive, and wholly original, Christopher Kondrich’s Tread Upon explores the social, political, religious, and economic drivers behind the chronic devaluation of the living world. In this book-length sequence, in which each section unravels a word or phrase of the prefatory poem, Tread Upon sprawls from suburbia to the Southern Ocean, from the Cape Fear River to the phones in our hands. Kondrich juxtaposes the intimate with the epic, integrating climate research and reporting to dismantle narratives of anthropocentrism and our individual responsibility amid corporate misinformation. What is the price of our (in)actions and who must pay the cost? In this world where ‘even one blade is a place’, the sequence reveals that the violence done to the living world is violence done to ourselves.”

Co-edited by Christopher Kondrich, Lucy Spelman, and Susan Tacent

Praise for Creature Needs

"A thought-provoking and emotionally resonant read that stands out for its lyrical prowess and formal innovation, making it a significant contribution to contemporary literature as well as a key volume bridging the gap between the worlds of science and art."
—Library Journal

"There are very few books that combine work across literary genres while focusing on a simple message: We must save our one and only precious Earth."
—Scientific American

"[W]hat makes Creature Needs inspiring is that it was borne of one of the very best parts of our species: the imagination. Each contributing writer found a personal and meaningful connection with another living thing. Taken together, the book is full of love and admiration—reverence, even."
—Electric Literature

Praise for Valuing

“A stunning work with a one-of-a-kind feel, this reflection on the major issues of self and others demands time and thought, but it delivers. Highly recommended.”
— Library Journal (starred review)

“There is not space enough for me to write all I love about this book and its potential for influence on poetry and on any mind made vulnerable to poetry.”
— Jericho Brown, author of The Tradition

“Never before have I read a book quite like this … I was floored by Kondrich’s ability to seamlessly meld distinct romanticism with larger investigations of human reason and logic-making.”
— Leslie Sainz, in West Branch

“Valuing asks that its readers—as ethical, spiritual beings—attend to this world and to our choices, and offers us a gleaming array of scenarios, descriptions, meditations, and fables from which to begin.”
— Han VanderHart, in AGNI

Praise for Contrapuntal

“[Contrapuntal] is what contemporary poetry is poised to accomplish, and Kondrich has a measured and meticulous style that winds well around the musical and interpersonal ideas he’s presenting here. “
— The the Poetry Blog

“In Contrapuntal, an enormously ambitious and masterful debut, Christopher Kondrich has shaped his material into a work of such inventiveness, wit, wisdom, bravura, tenderness and beauty, it leaves me in awe.”
— Timothy Donnelly, author of The Cloud Corporation

“The brilliance of Contrapuntal is realized through the relation that the poems bear to one another… Kondrich delves deeper and deeper from one poem to the next.” 
— The Rumpus

“Kondrich’s live performance recorded on the page harmonizes real time (experience as it occurs) with memorized time (experience as it is reproduced). It is our luck to be able to return to these lyrics over and over again.” 
— Jerry Magazine