Clayton Eshleman

over the past decade, five collections of his translations, five collections of his poetry, and two collections of essays have been published.  Over the years he has published his writing and translations in over 500 literary magazines and newspapers, and given readings of his work at over 200 universities.  He is now Professor Emeritus at Eastern Michigan University.  In the fall of 2008, Black Widow published a 600 page “Eshleman Reader,” a selection from forty years of his poetry, prose, and translations, called The Grindstone of Rapport.  Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1935, he earned a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in creative writing, both from Indiana University.  The author of more than thirty books, his collections of poetry include: Reciprocal Distillations (Hot Whiskey Press, 2007), An Alchemist with One Eye on Fire (2006), and Archaic Design (Black Widow Press, 2007).  From 1967 to 2000, he founded and edited two of the most seminal and highly – regarded literary magazines of the period.  Twenty issues of Caterpillar appeared between 1967 and 1973.  Selections from the magazine were collected as A Caterpillar Anthology  (1971).  In 1981, while Dreyfuss Poet in Residence at the California Institute of Technology, Eshleman founded Sulfur magazine.  The forty – sixth and final issue of Sulfur, which received thirteen National Endowment for the Arts grants, was published in 2000.  His awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and several research fellowships from Eastern Michigan University.  He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.