Everette "Rhett" Maddox (1944–1989) was an American poet who in 1979 co-founded (with Robert Stock and sculptor Franz Heldner) the longest-running poetry-reading series in the South at the

Maple Leaf Bar The Maple Leaf Bar is a music performance venue in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is also a bar and hosts other events. Background The Maple Leaf is on Oak Street in the Carrollton neighborhood. Opened on February 24, 1974, it is ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, Louisiana.

Biography

Maddox was born near

Prattville, Alabama Prattville is a city located within both Autauga and Elmore counties in the State of Alabama but serves as the county seat of Autauga County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 37,781. Nicknamed "The Fountain City" due to t ...

. He studied at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

, where he did his doctoral work but did not graduate. He moved to New Orleans and taught at

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...

beginning in 1975, before losing that position and, later, becoming homeless. In 1975 he became an associate editor for Louis Gallo's ''Burataria Review'', and then started organizing and MCing at the Maple Leaf Bar. He died of esophageal cancer in 1989. His work was published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

''. He published two books of poetry, and another was published posthumously. Other poetry was included in ''Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox'', edited by Grace Bauer and

Julie Kane :''Disambiguation: for the character voiced by Kate Micucci see Motorcity#Protagonists.'' Julie Kane (born July 20, 1952 in Boston) is a contemporary American poet, scholar, and editor and was the Louisiana Poet Laureate for the 2011–2013 ter ...

. In 2009 another selection of his poetry was published, ''I Hope Its Not Over And Goodby: Selected Poems of Everette Maddox''. His ashes are buried in the patio behind the Maple Leaf Bar under a stone that reads: "Everette Maddox – He was a mess."

Bibliography

*''The Everette Maddox Songbook'' *''Bar Scotch'' *''American Waste'' *''I Hope Its Not Over And Goodby: Selected Poems of Everette Maddox'' (2009)

Poetry and criticism

References

External links

Everette Maddox Papers
a
The Historic New Orleans Collection
American male poets 1944 births 1989 deaths University of Alabama alumni Xavier University faculty Writers from Montgomery, Alabama 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers {{US-poet-1940s-stub