Norman James "Jim" Levy (born October 6, 1940) is an American writer who has published sixteen books of poetry, essays, memoirs, travel and fiction. In his professional life, he worked for forty years as an executive for nonprofit organizations and as a consultant to nonprofits.

Early life

Levy was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois, on October 6, 1940. His father was Norman Arnold Levy, a Freudian psychoanalyst, and his mother was Caroline S. Levy, a wife, mother and aspiring writer. The family moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

when Jim was five. He attended public elementary and Jr. High, and then

The Thacher School The Thacher School is an elite private co-educational boarding school in Ojai, California. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-educational boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The first co-ed gra ...

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

. After two years at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

, he spent nine months writing in Italy and Spain, then enrolled in the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English and History and a lifetime teaching credential in secondary education.

Professional career

Levy was the executive director at the

Harwood Foundation Harwood Foundation is a non-profit organization in Taos, New Mexico that was listed as a National Register of Historic Places in 1976. For seventy-five years, serving as a public library, museum, auditorium, classrooms and meeting rooms, the Harwo ...

of the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, at the Taos Art Association in

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

, and at Family Services Center in

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

. He was the manager of Diversified Properties at the Housing Authority of the city of

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

. As a consultant he specialized in short-term rescue operations and in obtaining 501(c)(3) nonprofit status for new nonprofits. Levy was also the editor of the counterculture magazine '' Fountain of Light'' and a frequent book reviewer for the ''

Taos News ''Taos News'' is a weekly newspaper published in Taos, New Mexico. It is owned by El Crepusculo, Inc., named after the first newspaper published by Padre Martinez. The company is classified under newspaper publishing and printing manufacturers. ...

'' and ''

The Santa Fe New Mexican ''The Santa Fe New Mexican'' or simply ''The New Mexican'' is a daily newspaper published in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dubbed "the West's oldest newspaper," its first issue was printed on November 28, 1849. Background The downtown offices for ''T ...

''.

Bibliography

Nonfiction

* ''Corazon (and Merkle)''. Atalaya Press. 2014. * The Wind is Rising, Atalaya Press. 2022.

Poetry

* ''Cooler Than October Sunlight''. Atalaya Press. 2015. * ''The Poems of Caius Herennius Felix''. The Porcupine Press. 2015. * ''Monet's Eyes''. Cedar Forge Press. 2018. * ''Seen from a Distance''. Cedar Forge Press. 2019. * ''Of All the Stars, the Evening Star''. Atalaya Press. 2019. * ''Bacchus and the Drinker''. Atalaya Press. 2021.

Essays

* ''Joy to Come''. Porcupine Press. 2016. * ''Chekhov's Mistress''. Atalaya Press. 2020. * The Existential Pig. Atalaya Press. 2021

Memoirs

* ''The Fifth Season''. Atalaya Press. 2016. * ''Rowdy's Boy''. Atalaya Press. 2016. * ''Those Were the Days''. With Phaedra Greenwood. Atalaya Press. 2019.

Travel

* ''Mar Egeo. Stories and tales of travel''. Atalaya Press. 2017.

Fiction

* The District. Atalaya Press. 2023.

Awards

* ''Those Were the Days''. Best regional books of 2019, Taos News. * Poets Spotlighted, The Hypertexts.com. 2022

Personal life

Levy met Deirdre Bull in 1962 and they lived together, along with her two children Arlyn and Edward until 1971. They were married in 1966 and divorced in 1974. Deirdre went on to become a Buddhist nun. She is now called

Pema Chödrön Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། ''padma chos sgron'' “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism an ...

and has written a series of bestselling books and audios. Levy and author Phaedra Greenwood lived together from 1972 to 1992 and were married in 1977. They were divorced in 1994 and reunited in 2003. They live in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Jim 1940 births Living people Writers from Chicago The Thacher School alumni Pomona College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers