Charles North (poet)

Charles North (born June 9, 1941) is an American poet, essayist and teacher.

Born in New York City, North earned a B.A. in English and philosophy at Tufts University in 1962, and a M.A. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in 1964. In his mid-twenties, while copy-editing for a publishing company, he began writing poems. He studied poetry-writing at The New School with Kenneth Koch, and became associated with the second generation of the New York School, in particular the poetry community at The Poetry Project, where he taught a workshop from 1975-1976. He is currently Poet-in-Residence at Pace University in New York City.

North’s first poetry book, the innovative Lineups, was featured in two New York Post sports columns. He has since published nine books of poems, a book of essays on poets, artists, and critics, and collaborative books with the poet Tony Towle and the artist Trevor Winkfield. With James Schuyler, he edited the poet/painter anthologies Broadway and Broadway 2, and with the poet Paul Violi he ran the Swollen Magpie Press from 1976 to 1982.

Recognition
Described by James Schuyler as “the most stimulating poet of his generation,” North has received two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, an Individual Artist’s Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, four Fund for Poetry awards, and a Poets Foundation award.

Poetry

 * Lineups. Privately printed, 1972.
 * Elizabethan & Nova Scotian Music. Adventures in Poetry, 1974.
 * Leap Year: Poems 1968-1978. Kulchur Foundation, 1978.
 * Gemini (with Tony Towle). Swollen Magpie, 1981.
 * The Year of the Olive Oil. Hanging Loose, 1989.
 * New & Selected Poems. Los Angeles, CA: Sun & Moon, 1999.
 * The Nearness of the Way You Look Tonight. Adventures in Poetry, 2001.
 * Tulips (with Trevor Winkfield). Phylum, 2004.
 * Cadenza. Hanging Loose, 2007.
 * Complete Lineups. Hanging Loose, 2009.
 * What It Is Like. Turtle Point/Hanging Loose, 2011.

Prose

 * No Other Way: Selected prose. Hanging Loose, 1998.
 * Ode to Asparagus, Peonies and Manet. 2010.

Edited

 * Broadway: A poets and painters anthology. 1979.
 * Broadway 2: A poets and painters anthology. 1989.