John Farris (1940–2016) was an American poet and novelist who lived in the East Village neighborhood in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

borough of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He is the author of a volume of verse ''It's not About Time'' which was published by Fly by Night Press () in 1993. He is the also author of the novel ''The Ass's Tale'' published Unbearable Books (). Farris won the 2013 Acker Award in the fiction for the volume. Farris was a member of the rag tag literary collective "The Unbearables". Early in his career he spent some time in the orbit around the Civil Rights leader

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

. Farris died of a heart attack in January 2016 at his flat at the

Bullet Space Bullet Space is a legalized squat, artists’ collective and art gallery on the Lower East Side of New York City, founded in 1986 by Andrew and Paul Castrucci, among others. In 2009, it was legalized by the city. History The building at 292 Ea ...

collective in the East Village of Manhattan. A memorial celebrating Farris's life and art was held at the

Judson Memorial Church The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ...

in New York City on the evening of April 29, 2016. The speakers and readers at the memorial included; Chavisa Woods, Michael Carter, Ron Kolm,

Bob Holman Bob Holman is an American poet and poetry activist, most closely identified with the oral tradition, the spoken word, and poetry slam. As a promoter of poetry in many media, Holman has spent the last four decades working variously as an author ...

, Andrew Castrucci, Mia Hansford, David Henderson, Steve Cannon, and several of the writer's daughters, Farris's grandson jazz saxophonist Richard Dye also performed. A volume of his final poems is being edited for Archway Editions by Andrew Castrucci, Nicodemus Nicoludis and

Chris Molnar Chris Molnar is a writer, editor, filmmaker and publisher. He is the co-founder of The Writer's Block bookstore in Las Vegas, and editorial director of Archway Editions, the literary imprint of powerHouse Books distributed by Simon & Schuster. ...

. Excerpts from this project have appeared in '' Sensitive Skin'' and the ''Unpublishable'' anthology.

References

21st-century American novelists 20th-century American poets Novelists from New York City Writers from the East Village, Manhattan Place of birth missing 1940 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American novelists {{US-novelist-1940s-stub