Born November 1963, Napa, California. Grew up a New Englander:  Lyndonville, Vermont (holidays in Putney), and Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Early interest in Art and Theater. Started alternative lit. mag. with fellow Dublin students. Graduated from Oberlin College in 1986 and thereafter worked as a waiter at an unfortunate private club (perhaps I was swayed by the white jacket), and painted houses on two crews. In the fall of 1986 I rented a cottage in Brewster, on Cape Cod Bay, and completed a long poem which I began in college. In the winter of 1987 I left to travel around the world ("to find stories"--and out of a feeling that I "needed to gain more experience," and put myself in the context of a larger world). I hitchhiked and stayed in New Zealand (sending a telegram, at one point, to the American poet John Ashbery--advising him of my intention to study with him at Brooklyn College), Australia (where I saw for the first time two films about the Beat Generation; one was "Whatever Happened To Kerouac"), India, Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Italy, France, Spain (to the Picasso museum), Ireland and England again. Returned to Cape Cod, worked as a dish washer. Moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, fall 1987 (near Flatbush Ave. between 5th & 6th, for what it's worth); began studying with Allen Ginsberg, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, and Joan Larkin at Brooklyn College. Identified with Objectivists poets--especially Carl Rakosi, later George Oppen. Resident at the Cummington Community of the Arts. Taught at Brooklyn College first as Teaching Fellow, then as Adjunct. Started lit. mag. "Lame Duck" (published Antler, Cope, Cohn, Enslin, Hirschman, Bill Shields, Zegers, excerpts of interview w/ Ginsberg). Worked part time as a legal assistant. First book published and party held at the old Knitting Factory on Houston Street. Married in 1991, in Cornish, New Hampshire. Moved to Noe Valley, San Francisco, California, in 1992. 1995-6 member of "WritersCorps"--which compared itself to WPA/FWP (this one formed with President Clinton's National Service initiative). Presently working for the San Francisco Public Library and teaching.

 

 

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