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Joanne Kyger

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Gloria Graham Joanne Kyger

Joanne Kyger (1934-2017) in 2004. Photo by Gloria Graham. Licensed by Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 - March 22, 2017) was an American poet. Her poetry was influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and her ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat generation.

Life[]

Kyger studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara,[1] before moving to San Francisco, in 1957,[1] and becoming involved with the poetry scene around Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan.

In 1960 she joined Gary Snyder (whom she had met in San Francisco in 1958) in Japan. They were married on February 28, immediately after her arrival. She later travelled to India with Snyder, Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, where she met with the Dalai Lama.[2] She returned to the United States in 1964,[3] and her debut collection, The Tapestry and the Web was published the next year.

In 1965, she married Jack Boyce. They separated in the early 1970s.[4]

Kyger published more than 20 books of poetry and prose, including Going On: Selected poems, 1958–1980, 1983, and, Just Space: Poems, 1979-1989, 1991. Since 1968 she has lived in Bolinas, California, where she has edited the local newspaper. She has also done some occasional teaching at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics of the Naropa Institute, in Boulder, Colorado.[1]

In 2000, her 1981 collection of autobiographical writings was republished as Strange Big Moon: Japan and India journals, 1960-1964, which Anne Waldman has called "one of the finest books ever in the genre of 'journal writing'".

Kyger died at age 82 on March 22, 2017, at her home in Bolinas, California, from lung cancer, in the company of her husband, Donald Guravich.[5] She had been working on a new book, There You Are: Interviews, journals, and ephemera, which was published in September 2017 by Wave Books.

Recognition[]

In 2006 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

Her 2007 collection, About Now: Collected poems from National Poetry Foundation, won the 2008 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award for Poetry.

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • The Tapestry and the Web. San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1965.
  • Joanne. Bolinas, CA: Angel Hair, [1970?]
  • Places To Go. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1970.
  • All This Every Day. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky, 1975.
  • Lettre de Paris (with Larry Fagin). Berkeley, CA: Poltroon Press, 1977.
  • The Wonderful Focus of You. Calais, VT: Z Press, 1979.
  • Up My Coast (illustrations by Inez Storer). Point Reyes Station, CA: Floating Island Publications, 1981.
  • Going On: Selected poems, 1958-1980. New York: Dutton, 1983.
  • Man / Woman: Two poems ("Man" by Kyger; "Woman" by Michael Rothenberg; illustrated by Nancy Davis). Pacifica, CA: Twowindows Press, 1987.
  • Phenomenological (illustrated by Donald Guravich). Canton, NY: Grove Publishing for The Institute of Further Studies, 1989.
  • Just Space: Poems, 1979-1989 (illustrated by Arthur Okamura). Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1991.
  • Some Sketches from the Life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Boulder, CO: Rodent Press / Erudite Fangs, 1996.
  • Patzcuaro. Blue Millennium Press, 1999.
  • Some Life. Post-Apollo Press, 2000.
  • Again: Poems, 1989-2000. La Alameda Press, 2001.
  • As Ever: Selected Poems. New York: Penguin, 2002.
  • Ten Shines. Nijinsky Suicide Health Club, 2002.
  • The Distressed Look. Coyote Books, 2004.
  • God Never Dies. Blue Press, 2004.
  • Detektivgeschichten er Leidenschaft (with Stefan Hyner; epilogue by Jack Collum). Berlin: Stadtlichter Presse, 2005.
  • Night Palace. Backwoods Broadsides, 2006.
  • About Now: Collected Poems. Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, 2007.
  • Not Veracruz. Libellum, 2007.
  • Loose Renditions: Poems 2006-2007 (e-book). Coyote Press, 2007.
  • Permission by The Horns, 2007-2008 (e-book). Ungovernable Press, 2008.
  • Lo & Behold: Household and threshold on California’s north coast. Voices from the American Land 1:1 (Winter 2009).

Journals[]

  • Desecheo Notebook. Berkeley CA: Arif Press, 1971.
  • Trip Out and Fall Back. Berkeley CA: Arif Press, 1974.
  • Mexico Blonde. Bolinas CA: Evergreen, 1981.
  • Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India journals, 1960-1964. Bolinas CA: Tombouctou, 1981; Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2000.


Joanne_Kyger_@_San_Francisco_Public_Library

Joanne Kyger @ San Francisco Public Library

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Electronic Poetry Center.[6]

See also[]

References[]

  • Stirling, Isabel. "Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki" (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Big Bridge #4 Chapbook Poet: Joanne Kyger". http://www.bigbridge.org/Issue4/biokyger.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-23. 
  2. ↑ The Beat Book edited by Anne Waldman, pg. 252
  3. ↑ Kyger 2000, 280.
  4. ↑ "Crooked Cucumber-Joanne Kyger interview". http://www.cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/interviews/kyger.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  5. ↑ John McMurtie (March 23, 2017). "Joanne Kyger, trailblazing Beat poet, dies at 82". San Francisco Gate. http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Joanne-Kyger-trailblazing-Beat-poet-dies-at-82-11021799.php. Retrieved March 25, 2017. 
  6. ↑ Joanne Kyger: Bio Notes and Bibliography, Electronic Poetry Center, Department of Media Study, State University of New York at Buffalo. Web, Oct. 30, 2014.

External links[]

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