David Trinidad (born 1953 in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
) is an American poet.
David Trinidad was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in the
San Fernando Valley. He attended
California State University, Northridge, where he studied poetry with
Ann Stanford and edited the literary journal ''Angel’s Flight''. While at Northridge, he became friends with the poet
Rachel Sherwood, a fellow student. On July 5, 1979, Sherwood and Trinidad were involved in an automobile accident in which Sherwood was killed and Trinidad severely injured. Later, Trinidad published a book of Rachel Sherwood's poems and established Sherwood Press in her honor.
Trinidad’s first book of poems, ''Pavane'', was published in 1981. The ''Los Angeles Times Book Review'' noted that Trinidad’s "voice has assurance and integrity.” In the early 1980s, Trinidad was one of a group of poets who were active at the
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. Other members of this group included
Dennis Cooper
Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...
,
Bob Flanagan,
Amy Gerstler, Jack Skelley, and Ed Smith. As editor of Sherwood Press, he published books by Cooper, Flanagan, Gerstler,
Tim Dlugos
Tim Dlugos (born Francis Timothy Dlugos) (August 5, 1950 – December 3, 1990) was an American poet. Early in his career, Dlugos was celebrated for his energetic, openly gay, pop culture-infused poems. Later, he became widely known for the poems ...
,
Alice Notley
Alice Notley (born November 8, 1945) is an American poet. Notley came to prominence as a member of the second generation of the New York School of poetry—although she has always denied being involved with the New York School or any specific mo ...
, and others. In 1988, Trinidad relocated to New York City. He received his Master of Fine Arts from
Brooklyn College in 1990. He taught at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
and
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
. In 2002, Trinidad moved to Chicago to teach at
Columbia College, where he co-founded the literary journal ''Court Green''. His personal papers are archived at
Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...
at New York University.
In addition to his own books, Trinidad has edited several volumes of poetry, including ''A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos'' (2011), which won a
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...
. His latest edited volume, ''Punk Rock Is Cool for the End of the World: Poems and Notebooks of Ed Smith,'' was published in June 2019.
Trinidad is known for his masterful use of popular culture in his poems. The poet
James Schuyler
James Marcus Schuyler (November 9, 1923 – April 12, 1991) was an American poet. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1980 collection ''The Morning of the Poem''. He was a central figure in the New York School and is of ...
wrote, “Trinidad turns the paste jewels of pop art into the real thing.” His work is also associated with the innovative formalism of the
New York School. Alice Notley has written, “There is an unwavering light in all of Trinidad’s work that turns individual words into objects, new facts.” About ''The Late Show'' (2007), ''The New York Times Book Review'' wrote that Trinidad’s “most impressive gift is an ability to dignify the dross of American life, to honor both the shrink-wrapped sentiment of the cultural artifacts he writes about and his own much more complicated emotional response to them.”
Published works
*''Pavane'' (1981)
*''Monday, Monday'' (1985)
*''Living Doll'' (1986)
*''November'' (1987)
*''Three Stories'' (1988)
*''Hand Over Heart: Poems 1981-1988'' (1991)
*''Answer Song'' (1994)
*''Essay with Movable Parts'' (1998)
*''Plasticville'' (2000)
*''Tiny Moon Notebook'' (2007)
*''The Late Show'' (2007)
*''Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems'' (2011)
*''Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera'' (2013)
*''Notes on a Past Life'' (2016)
*''Swinging on a Star'' (2017)
*''Coteries and Gossip: Naropa Diary, June 13–20, 2010'' (2019)
*''Digging to Wonderland: Memory Pieces'' (2022)
Collaborations
*''A Taste of Honey'' (with Bob Flanagan, 1990)
*''Chain Chain Chain'' (with Jeffery Conway and
Lynn Crosbie
Lynn Crosbie (born 7 August 1963) is a Canadian poet and novelist. She teaches at the University of Toronto.
Life and career
Crosbie was born in Montreal, Quebec, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario.
She received her PhD in English from the Univer ...
, 2000)
*''Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse'' (with Jeffery Conway and Lynn Crosbie, 2003)
*''By Myself: An Autobiography'' (with
D. A. Powell, 2009)
*''Descent of the Dolls, Part I'' (with Jeffery Conway and
Gillian McCain
Gillian McCain (born January 1, 1966) is a Canadian poet, author, and photography collector best known for ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'', which she co-wrote with Legs McNeil. McCain is the author of two books of poetry: '' ...
, 2017)
Editor
*''Powerless: Selected Poems 1973-1990'' by Tim Dlugos (1996)
*''Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford'' (with
Maxine Scates, 2001)
*''Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry'' (with
Denise Duhamel and
Maureen Seaton
Maureen Seaton (born October 20, 1947 in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is an American LGBTQ poet, activist, and professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of Miami. She is the author of fourteen solo books of poetry, thirteen co-authored boo ...
, 2007)
*''A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos'' (2011)
*''Punk Rock Is Cool for the End of the World: Poems and Notebooks of Ed Smith'' (2019)
*''Divining Poets: Dickinson'' (
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
divination deck, 2019)
*''New York Diary'' by Tim Dlugos (2021)
Essays, studies
Hidden in Plain Sight: On Sylvia Plath's Missing Journals(2010)
So Much Depends: On the Particular, the Personal, & the Political(2017)
External links
The Fales Library Guide to the David Trinidad Papersfrom the New York Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trinidad, David
1953 births
Living people
American male poets
Columbia College Chicago faculty
Outlaw poets
Lambda Literary Award winners
Writers from Los Angeles
American gay writers
American LGBT poets
New York School poets
Brooklyn College alumni
Gay poets