Poets David Meltzer and Julie Rogers, Wednesday, June 29th

Listen to the reading...

A poet at age 11 and child performer on radio and TV, David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday in San Francisco and early on took his poetry to jazz for improv wonders which he continues to astound listeners with today. He is the author of many volumes of poetry including The Clown, The Process, Arrows: Selected Poetry, 1957 – 1992, No Eyes: Lester Young, Beat Thing, and David's Copy. This June, City Light's will publish his forthcoming book, When I Was A Poet, as # 60 in their Pocket Poet's Series. As well he has published fiction, numerous anthologies and essays including Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook and has edited numerous anthologies such as Reading Jazz, Writing Jazz, and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets among others. David Meltzer composed, performed and recorded as a singer/songwriter during the 60s and 70s; albums include Serpent Power and Poet Song. He taught in the Humanities and graduate Poetics programs at the New College of California in San Francisco for 30 years and is now writing, reading and performing on tour and in the Bay Area. Visit the website at www.meltzerville.com .

Julie Rogers began writing at age 12 and reading her poetry in San Francisco cafes in the late 1970's. She has self-published five chapbooks, and in 2007 Vimala published her Buddhist hospice manual, ‘Instructions for the Transitional State'. Currently, her main focus is on several book-length manuscripts of poetry, one solicited by and recently completed for Wild Ocean Press. She has read on public radio and television and at many venues in Oregon and northern California. Her poems have been published in various anthologies such as Poets Against the War and most recently, Beatitude – Golden Anniversary 1959 – 2009. In the Afterward, editor Latif Harris wrote, “her poetry is beautifully lyric combining the inner and outer worlds in a seamless unity of visionary grace,” and is “following in the steps of Beat literature in its broadest sense.” Visit the website at www.julrogers.com .