Neeli Cherkovski



Neeli Cherkovski: (born Nelson Cherry, 1945) is an American poet and memoirist.

Life
He was born Nelson Cherry in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in [San Bernardino, California.

In the 1970s he was a political consultant in the Riverside area who came to San Francisco to work on the staff of then-State Senator George Moscone. He has resided in San Francisco since 1975.

He has written biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bob Kaufman, and Charles Bukowski with whom he co-edited the Los Angeles zine Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns.. Cherkovski produced the first San Francisco Poetry Festival, and in the early-1990s helped to found Café Arts Month, a yearly event celebrating San Francisco’s cafe culture.

Cherkovski is the author of Whitman's Wild Children, a collection of essays about twelve poets he has known: Michael McClure, Charles Bukowski, John Wieners, James Broughton, Philip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, Allen Ginsberg, William Everson, Gregory Corso, Harold Norse, Jack Micheline, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. This book combines biography, personal stories, and poetry analyses.

Cherkovski was a writer-in-residence at the New College of California in San Francisco. He taught literature and philosophy there until the school closed in 2008. Cherkovski's body of poetry includes Animal, Elegy for Bob Kaufman and Leaning Against Time, for which he was awarded the 15th Annual PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2005. His most recent work is From the Canyon Outward.

Writing
Poetry critic Gerald Nicosia said of Cherkovski, "...in the end, what stamps Cherkovski’s poetry as unique is its unbounded lyricism, a lyrical gift easily greater than that of any other poet of his generation."

Poetry?

 * Don't Make a Move. Tecumseh Press, 1974.
 * The Waters Reborn. Red Hill Press, 1975.
 * Public Notice. Beatitude, 1975.
 * Love Proof. Green Light Press, 1980.
 * Juggler Within. Harwood Alley Monographs, 1983.
 * Clear Wind. Avant Books, 1984.
 * Naming the Nameless. Sore Dove Press, 2004.
 * From the Canyon Outward. R.L. Crow Publications, 2009.

Poetry

 * Animal.Pantograph Press, 1996.
 * Elegy for Bob Kaufman. Sun Dog Press, 1996.
 * Leaning Against Time. R.L. Crow Publications, 2004.
 * Manila Poems, Bottle of Smoke Press, 2013.

Non-fiction

 * Ferlinghetti, a biography. Doubleday, 1979.
 * Whitman's Wild Children. Lapis Press, 1989.
 * Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski. New York: Random House, 1991.