Michael McClure

at the age of 22 he gave his first poetry reading at the legendary Six Gallery event in San Francisco, where Allen Ginsberg first read “Howl.” Today, he is more active than ever, writing and performing his poetry. He has worked extensively with his friend Ray Manzarek, the Doors’ keyboardist, at festivals and colleges and clubs. He has given hundreds of reading in venues as varied as the Fillmore Ballroom, Yale University, The National Biodiversity Conference at the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Obie Award for Best Play, an NEA grant, the Alfred Jarry Award, and a Rockefeller grant for playwriting. He has written twenty plays and musicals; fourteen books of poetry including Jaguar Skies, Dark Brown, Huge Dreams, Rebel Lions, Rain Mirror, and Plum Stones; eight books of plays; four collections of essays; and two novels, The Mad Cub and The Adept. His songs include “Mercedes Benz,” popularized by Janis Joplin. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area hills with his wife, the sculptor, Amy Evans McClure.