Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

, experimental prose writer,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

, and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, sometimes grouped in with the

Language poets The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalapi ...

, though she felt closely tied to the

Beat poets Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. Writes Hejinian: A longtime resident of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

, she earned an M.A. in English from the

University of California at 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 univ ...

. One of Scalapino's most critically well-received works is way (North Point Press, 1988), a long poem which won the Poetry Center Award, the Lawrence Lipton Prize, and the

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

Life and work

Scalapino was born in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

and raised in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. She traveled throughout her youth and adulthood to Asia, Africa and Europe and her writing was intensely influenced by these experiences.Some of the other places Scalapino traveled included Tibet, Bhutan, Japan, India, Mongolia, Yemen, Libya In childhood Scalapino traveled with her father Robert A. Scalapino (founder of UC Berkeley's Institute of East Asian Studies), her mother, and her two sisters (Diane and Lynne). She attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in Portland, Oregon and received her B.A. in Literature in 1966 before moving on to earn her M.A. at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

.EPC's Obituary Notice: Leslie Scalapino 1944 - 2010
/ref> Scalapino published her first book ''O and Other Poems'' in 1976. During her lifetime, she published more than thirty books of poetry, prose, inter-genre fiction, plays, essays, and collaborations. Other well-known works of hers include ''The Return of Painting, The Pearl, and Orion : A Trilogy'' (North Point, 1991; Talisman, 1997), ''Dahlia's Iris: Secret Autobiography and Fiction'' (

FC2 FC2 can refer to: * FC2 (portal), an Internet content portal, frequently used by people in the Asian region * FC2: an EEG electrode site according to the 10-20 system * The nitrile version of the female condom, introduced in 2005 * Fire Controlma ...

), ''Sight'' (a collaboration with

Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), a ...

; Edge Books), and ''Zither & Autobiography'' (

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

Press). Scalapino's poetry has been widely anthologized, including appearances in the influential ''

Postmodern American Poetry ''Postmodern American Poetry'' is a poetry anthology edited by Paul Hoover (poet), Paul Hoover and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1994. A substantially revised second edition in 2012 removed some poets and added many others, incorporating ...

'',

From the Other Side of the Century ''From the Other Side of the Century: A New American Poetry, 1960–1990'' is a poetry anthology published in 1994. It was edited by American poet and publisher Douglas Messerli – under his own imprint Sun & Moon Press – and includes poets fr ...

, and '' Poems for the Millennium'' anthologies, as well as the popular ''

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

'' and ''

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

'' series anthologies. Her work was the subject of a special "critical feature" appearing in an issue of the online poetry journal

How2 How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * How (book), ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by ...

. From 1986 until 2010, Scalapino ran the

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

small press she founded,

O Books John Hunt Publishing is a left-wing publishing company founded in the United Kingdom in 2001, initially named O Books. The publisher has 24 active autonomous imprints, with the largest of these being the Zero Books imprint (styled Zer0 Books) foun ...

. Scalapino taught writing at various institutions, including 16 years in the MFA program at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

. Other schools she taught at over the years included

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

, the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, and

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as B ...

References

Selected bibliography

Poetry

*''O and Other Poems'', Sand Dollar Press, 1976 *''The Woman who Could Read the Minds of Dogs'', Sand Dollar Press, 1976 *''Instead of an Animal'', Cloud Marauder Press, 1978 *''This eating and walking is associated all right'', Tombouctou, 1979 *''Considering how exaggerated music is'', North Point Press, 1982 *''that they were at the beach — aeolotropic series'', North Point Press, 1985 *''way'', North Point Press, 1988 *''Crowd and not evening or light'', O Books, 1992 *''Sight'' (with

Edge Books ''Aerial'' is an influential poetry magazine edited by Rod Smith and published by Aerial/Edge, based in Washington, D.C. Aerial/Edge also publishes Edge Books. The first issue of ''Aerial'' appeared in 1984. Edge Books began with its first publi ...

, 1999 *''New Time'', Wesleyan University Press, 1999 *''The Tango'', (with

Marina Adams A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...

), Granary Press, 2001 *''Day Ocean State of Stars' Night: Poems & Writings 1989 & 1999-2006'', Green Integer (E-L-E-PHANT Series), 2007 *''It's go in horizontal, Selected Poems 1974-2006'', UC Press, Berkeley, 2008

Fiction

*''The Return of Painting'', DIA Foundation, 1990 *''The Return of Painting, The Pearl, and Orion : A Trilogy'', North Point, 1991; Talisman, 1997 *''Defoe'', Sun & Moon Press, 1995 *''The Front Matter, Dead Souls'', Wesleyan University Press, 1996 *''Orchid Jetsam'', Tuumba, 2001 *''Dahlia's Iris — Secret Autobiography and Fiction'',

, November 2003

Inter-genre writings

*''The Public World / Syntactically Impermanence'', Wesleyan University Press, 1999 *''How Phenomena Appear To Unfold , Potes & Poets Press, 1991 *''Objects in the Terrifying Tense / Longing from Taking Place'', Roof Books, 1994 *''Green and Black'', Selected Writings , Talisman Publishers, 1996 *''R-hu'', Atelos Press, 2000 *''Zither and Autobiography'', Wesleyan, 2003 *''Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows'', Starcherone Books, 2010 *''The Dihedrons Gazelle-Dihedrals Zoom'', The Post-Apollo Press / O Books, 2010

Plays

*''Goya's L.A., a play'', Potes & Poets Press, 1994 (music by Larry Ochs) *''Stone Marmalade (the Dreamed Title)'', (with

Kevin Killian Kevin Killian (December 24, 1952 – June 15, 2019) was an American poet, author, editor, and playwright primarily of LGBT literature. ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, wo ...

) Singing Horse Press, 1996 *''The Weatherman Turns Himself In'', Zasterle Press, Spain 1999 *''Flow-Winged Crocodile & A Pair/Actions Are Erased/Appear'', Chax Press, Tucson AZ 2010

External links

*'
Leslie Scalapino.com: Official Website
''
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library.

at the

Electronic Poetry Center The Electronic Poetry Center (EPC), is an online resource for digital poetry. It was founded on July 10, 1994 by Loss Pequeño Glazier and Charles Bernstein, of the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo, making it one of the oldest resources for poetry ...

How2 Special Feature: Leslie ScalapinoO Books
Scalapino-founded small press
Scalapino's Author Page
at the

'The Tango' reviewed
by Melissa Flores-Bórquez at poetry mag " Intercapillary Space"
''Disbelief'': ''History/Memory/Body: Language is the Trace of Being''
written for the Segue Panel "Language Poetry and the Body", May 12, 2007
It’s go in horizontal by Leslie Scalapino
A review by John Herbert Cunningham

Writes Scalapino in the "Introductory note": {{DEFAULTSORT:Scalapino, Leslie 1944 births 2010 deaths Language poets English-language poets American book publishers (people) American editors Reed College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Bard College faculty Mills College faculty San Francisco Art Institute faculty California College of the Arts faculty San Francisco State University faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Naropa University faculty Writers from Santa Barbara, California Writers from Berkeley, California 20th-century poets 20th-century American women writers Modernist women writers Modernist writers American Book Award winners American women academics 21st-century American women