Poetry Deal

Diane di Prima was born in Brooklyn in 1934. She emerged as a member of the Beat Generation in the late '50s, associating with poets like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Frank O'Hara, and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). With Jones, she started the mimeo mag The Floating Bear in the early '60s. She also co-founded the New York Poets Theatre and Poets Press. In the late '60s, she moved to San Francisco, where she published her groundbreaking Revolutionary Letters with City Lights and wrote her erotic novel Memoirs of a Beatnik. She taught for many years at Naropa and at New College of San Francisco. Her other important publications include the long poem Loba, the selected Pieces of a Song, and the memoir Recollections of My Life as a Woman. She was named San Francisco Poet Laureate in 2009.

• INAUGURAL ADDRESS AT KORET AUDITORIUMTHE POETRY DEALCITY LIGHTS 1961FOR PIGPENMISSING THE GRATEFUL DEAD FILLMORE & HAYES350 DEATHS: PHILIP WHALEN A SHORT HISTORY OF BYZANTIUMALCHEMICAL SIGNALSLINGUISTICSNOVEMBER 2, 1972OCTOBER I DREAM OF AMY EVANS AND MICHAEL MCCLUREWISTERIA LIGHTFOG: SAN FRANCISCOPOSTCARD FROM MARSHALL, CALOT’S WIFE DOESN’T HAVEKIRBY DOYLEON THE TRAINat least the Bay Bridge snappedESCAPESFOR A STUDENTDOMINIQUEMAX ERNST IN SUBURBIAGERI’S GARDENGRACIASCLEARING THE DESKNOTES ON THE ART OF MEMORYMEMORIAL DAYSUNDAY MORNING SAUNA, SAN FRANCISCOMEANWHILE THE WORLD GOES DOWNWAR HAIKU: LEBANONMAY-DANCE 2011& ABOUT OBAMAHAITI, CHILE, TIBETCARTOGRAPHYTHE POETRY READINGin jazz in poetryKEEP THE BEATSHIRLEY HORNE AT YOSHI’Stender not fragilethe Phoenix isAUDRE LORDEthe light, the splinteredFOR SHEPPARDwind chime sends ripplesTHE LAMATHREE DHARMA POEMSHEALING SPELL FOR MOUSEA FAREWELL RITEZORON, YOUR DEATHWHERE ARE YOUmy dream from last nightTRAVEL POEM FOR SHEPEYE CLINIC WAITING ROOMOLD AGESOME WORDS ABOUT THE POEM

"As San Francisco goes through the drastic changes ushered in by the booming tech economy, here comes a collection of new poems from one of the city's cultural stalwarts--her first full-length book in decades. A feminist and an early member of the Beats, di Prima reflects on her life in the Bay Area in what her publisher calls an 'often elegiac' work. The 80-year-old former San Francisco Poet Laureate notes what has been lost in the city she's called home since the '60s, but also celebrates what endures."--Oscar Villalon, KQED Books "From her early days as a member of the Beat generation in the 1950s to her selection as San Francisco poet laureate in 2009, Diane di Prima has been essential to the Bay Area literary scene. This slim volume of new works finds her still pursuing the personal and political interests that have shaped her career. Framed by two prose statements reflecting on San Francisco, the poems chronicle love and loss, war and AIDS, and remembrances of fellow writers, poets and thinkers."--Georgia Rowe, Bay Area News Group "A prolific writer generally associated with the Beat Generation, di Prima deserves wider recognition."--Library Journal "She is not about to be regarded merely as a literary figurehead, but as an ongoing contributor to the arts--a presence whose voice continues to positively impact those who listen, as it has for the last half-century."--Verbicide Magazine "The Poetry Deal is di Prima's first full-length book of new poems in decades. It includes poignant pieces about loss and aging, as well as impassioned political verse and odes to such diverse figures as the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Caribbean-American writer and activist Audre Lorde."--Andrea Miller, Shambhala Sun " ... di Prima's concerns transcend her own condition and do the broader work of poetry, which 'constantly renews our seeing: so we can speak the constantly changing Truth' ... Neither naive nor jaded, di Prima continues to write what she sees and to encourage our attention."--Marla Johnson, World Literature Today "From 2008 to 2011, Diane di Prima served as Poet Laureate of San Francisco, and The Poetry Deal, her first full-length collection of poems in nearly fifteen years, is her gift to us... More than anything it is generous, and I am so grateful for the generosity of this book and for this poet, who reminds us that, even in our desperate grasping, there is 'no season / that is not / a Season of Song...'"--Maryam Parhizkar, The Poetry Project Newsletter