Bill Berkson
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| Bill Berkson | |
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 Bill Berkson speaking at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Los Angeles. |
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| Born | William Craig Berkson August 30, 1939 New York, NY |
| Occupation | poet, critic, teacher, curator, editor & publisher |
| Spouse(s) | Constance Lewallen |
| Children | Moses, Siobhan |
Bill Berkson (born 30 August 1939) is an American poet.
Born in New York City, BILL BERKSON
Born in New York in 1939, Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties. He was educated at Trinity School, New York, and the Lawrenceville School and attended Brown University, Columbia University, the New School for Social Research and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Director of Letters and Science at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1993 to 1998, he taught art history, critical writing and poetry and directed the public lectures program there 1984-2007.
He is the author of many books and pamphlets of poetry -- including, most recently, Gloria, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Alex Katz (Arion Press, 2005), Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press, 2007) and Goods and Services (Blue Press, 2008). His poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Other recent books are What’s Your Idea of a Good Time: Letters & Interviews 1977-1985 with Bernadette Mayer (Tuumba Press, 2006; BILL with drawings by Colter Jacobsen; and Ted Berrigan with George Schneeman. His poems have also appeared in many magazins and anthologies, most notably among the latter The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, The Angel Hair Anthology, An Anthology of New York Poets, New York Poets II, and Bay Poetics.
During the 1960s he was an editorial associate at Art News, a regular contributor to Arts, guest editor at the Museum of Modern Art, an associate producer of a program on art for public television, and taught literature and writing workshops at the New School and Yale University.
After moving to Northern California in 1970, he began editing and publishing a series of poetry books and magazines under the Big Sky imprint. He was awarded a creative writing fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and has also received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, Artspace, the Poets Foundation, The Fund for Poetry, and Briarcombe Foundation. Before coming to the Art Institute, he taught regularly in the California Poets in the Schools program.
In the mid-1980s he resumed writing art criticism on a regular basis, contributing monthly reviews and articles to Artforum from 1985 to 1991; he became a corresponding editor for Art in America in 1988 and also writes frequently for such magazines as Aperture, Modern Painters, Art on Paper, and others.
As a curator he has organized or co-curated such exhibitions as Ronald Bladen: Early and Late (SFMoMA), Albert York (Mills College), Why Painting I & II (Susan Cummins Gallery), Homage to George Herriman (Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery), and Facing Eden: 100 years of Northern California Landscape Art (M.H. de Young Museum).
He was Distinguished Paul Mellon Lecturer for 2006 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and was awarded the 2008 Goldie for Literature from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. A collection of his criticism, The Sweet Singer of Modernism & Other Art Writings, appeared from Qua Books in 2004, and Sudden Address: Selected Lectures 1981-2006 from Cuneiform Press in 2007. Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems appeared Coffee House Press in Spring 2009, and a new collection of writings and interviews on art and poetry will follow soon.
[edit] Bill Berkson – Books in Print
Poetry: Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press,2009) Goods and Services (Blue Press, 2008) Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press, 2007) Parts of the Body: a 1970s/80s Scrapbook (Fell Swoop #78, 2006) Same Here, an online chapbook (Big Bridge, 2006) Gloria (with etchings by Alex Katz) (Arion Press, 2005) (with Frank O’Hara) Hymns of St. Bridget & Other Writings (The Owl Press, 2003) Fugue State (Zoland, 2002) Serenade (Zoland, 2000) Young Manhattan (with Anne Waldman) (Erudite Fangs, 2001) Blue Is the Hero (L Publications, 1975)
Prose: What’s Your Idea of a Good Time?: Interviews & Letters 1977-1985 (with Bernadette Mayer) (Tuumba Press, 2006)
Criticism: Sudden Address: Selected Lectures 1981-2006 (Cuneiform, 2007) The Sweet Singer of Modernism & Other Art Writings (Qua Books, 2004)
Editor: Homage to Frank O’Hara (with Joe LeSueur) (Big Sky, 1978, 1988) In Memory of My Feelings by Frank O’Hara, illustrated by 30 American artists (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967; 2005)
Collaboration: Bill (with Colter Jacobsen) (Gallery 16 Editions, 2008) Ted Berrigan (with George Schneeman)(Cuneiform, 2009)
most are available from Small Press Distribution, Berkeley, CA. orders@spdbooks.org.
[edit] References
- Contemporary Authors, Volume 180, Gale Research
- Ron Padgett, ed., World Poets, Volume 1, Scribners, 2002
- Terence Diggory, Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets, Facts on File, 2009
- Daniel Kane, All Poets Welcome, University of California Press, 2003
- Steven Clay and Rodney Philips, A Secret Location On The Lower East Side, Granary/NY Public Library, 1998
- Who’s Who in American Art, 2009
[edit] External links
- Works by or about Bill Berkson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Poem by Berkson at Milk Magazine
- Teacher's & Writers: Poet's Chat Berkson interviewed by Daniel Kane; Berkson talks about his poem "Poem," ways to think about line-breaks, dealing with time in poetry, among other subjects
- The Recital
- Publishers Weekly review of BB book Serenade
- Brooklyn Rail Interview with BB
- BB reads autobiography and discusses life and work
- wide range of BB recorded readings
- Berkson in conversation with Robert Gluck
