1941-1970

Michael Brownstein is a poet, a novelist, and an activist. Often associated with Beat writing and both the New York School and a second generation of New York School poets, Brownstein moved to New York City…

A constellation of writers and artists active in the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of World War II, including Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Robin Blaser, Jack Spicer, and Michael McClure.

A group of poets aligned with the New York School of painting in the 1950s and ’60s.

A national group of poets who emerged from San Francisco’s literary counterculture in the 1950s, including Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, and Gary Snyder.

Although known primarily among a coterie of poets in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time of his death in 1965, over time, Jack Spicer has become a towering figure in American poetry. His numerous poetry…

Kenneth Patchen was born into a poor family in Niles, Ohio. He moved to Wisconsin after high school and studied at the University of Wisconsin. He then held a variety of jobs as a migrant worker in the United…

Jack Hirschman was born in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. A copyeditor with the Associated Press in New York as a young man, his earliest brush with fame came from a letter Ernest Hemingway wrote …

Poet and essayist Diane Wakoski was born in Whittier, California. She earned her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied with poets such as Thom Gunn and Josephine Miles. After finishing…

David Antin was born in New York City. He earned an MA in linguistics at City College of New York, where he studied the work of Gertrude Stein, a poet whose avant-garde aesthetic and interest in art would …

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard University and Kenyon College. He is best known for his volume Life Studies (1959), but his true greatness …

Simon Pettet is an English-born poet and long-time resident of New York's Lower East Side. John Ashbery described him as a “pillar of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, the core of all that is New York about the…

Michael Lally was born in New Jersey into a working-class family. He joined the Air Force before gravitating toward the poetry scenes associated with both the Beats and the second generation New York School…

Poet, translator, and jazz pianist Bill Zavatsky was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He earned his BA and MA from Columbia University, where he took classes with Kenneth Koch. Zavatsky also studied music …

Poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago. His mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, was an opera singer and a teacher, and his Jamaican-born father, Gilbert Heron, was the first professional black soccer…

Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Black Arts poet, playwright, and children’s writer Mari Evans was educated at the University of Toledo, where she studied fashion design. She was influenced by Langston Hughes…

Poet, writer, playwright, and oral historian Thomas Covington Dent was born in New Orleans. He earned a BA in political science at Morehouse College, completed graduate study at the Syracuse University School…

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ted Greenwald earned a BA from Queens College, CUNY. He has authored more than 25 books of poetry, including Lapstrake (1965); Blink (1972); The Life (1975); You Bet! (1978); Common…

Poet, performer, scholar, and educator Sarah Webster Fabio is considered a foundational member of the West Coast Black Arts Movement. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Fabio was educated at Spelman College, Fisk…