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Neeli

Neeli Cherkovski. Courtesy About.me.

Neeli Cherkovski
Born Template:Birth year and age
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Residence San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation prose writer, poet

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

Life[]

Cherkovski was born Nelson Cherry in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in San Bernardino, California.[1]

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[2] with whom he co-edited the Los Angeles zine Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns..[3] 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 12 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.(Citation needed) 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."[4]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Poems for the Wailing Wall. San Bernardino, CA: Black Cat Press, 1968.
  • Pre-Rabbinic Poems. San Bernardino, CA: Tecumseh Press, 1969.
  • Don't Make a Move. Big Bear Lake, CA: Tecumseh Press, 1973.
  • The Waters Reborn. Los Angeles, CA: Red Hill Press, 1975.
  • Public Notice. San Francisco: Beatitude Press, 1975.
  • The Be Attitude. San Francisco: Beatitude Press, 1976.
  • The Summer Palace. San Francisco: Twenty-Two Press, 1976.
  • Notes from Syropa. San Francisco: Klean Karma Press, 1976.
  • Love Proof: Book of poems and drawings. North Beach, San Francisco: Green Light Press, 1980.
  • Home American: Section 1. Alexandria, VA: Deep Forest, 1983.
  • Juggler Within. San Francisco: Harwood Alley Monographs, 1983.
  • Clear Wind. San Diego, CA: Avant Books, 1984.
  • Animal. Berkeley, CA: Pantograph Press, 1996.
  • Elegy for Bob Kaufman. Northville, MI: Sun Dog Press, 1996.
  • Off the Tongues of Sinners: A poetry anthology (by Neeli Cherkovski, Bradley Mason Hamlin, Gerald Nicosia, & A.D. Winans). San Clemente, CA: 12 Guage Press, 2002.
  • Leaning Against Time: Poems. Penn Valley, CA: R.L. Crow, 2004.
  • Naming the Nameless: Poem. San Francisco: Sore Dove Press, 2004.
  • Einstein Alive. San Francisco: Solo Zone, 2005.
  • A Packet of Love Poems. Santa Rosa, CA: Word Temple, 2008.
  • From the Canyon Outward: Poems. Penn Valley, CA: R.L. Crow, 2009.
  • Grotesque Empire. Dover, DE: Bottle of Smoke Press, 2010.
  • From the Middle Woods. Cullowhee, NC: New Native Press, 2011.
  • Manila Poems. Dover, DE: Bottle of Smoke Press, 2013.
  • Elegy for My Beat Generation, Lithic Press, Fruta, Co.2018

Non-fiction[]

  • Ferlinghetti: A biography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.
  • Whitman's Wild Children: Portraits of twelve poets. Venice, CA: Lapis Press, 1988; South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1999.
  • Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski. New York: Random House, 1991
    • also published as Bukowski: A life. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1997.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]

See also[]

Neeli_Cherkovski_at_San_Francisco_International_Poetry_Festival_2012

Neeli Cherkovski at San Francisco International Poetry Festival 2012

References[]

  1. Neeli Cherkovski, About.me. Web, May 31, 2014.
  2. Los Angeles Times
  3. R.L. Crow Publications
  4. Nicosia, Gerald (May 8, 2005) "Fear not, Ferlinghetti." San Francisco Chronicle.
  5. Search results = au:Neeli Cherkovski, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, May 31, 2014.

External links[]

Poems
Audio / video
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