Ted Pearson (born 1948 in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

) is 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 ...

. He is often associated 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 ...

Life and work

Pearson was born in 1948 in Palo Alto, California. He began studying liturgical music in 1960, instrumental music in 1962 (with Harvey Samuels,

Lee Konitz Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist. He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz ...

, and others), and began writing poetry in 1964 after

Paul Desmond Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer, best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's biggest hit, " ...

gave him a copy of

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

’s For Love. He subsequently attended

VanderCook College of Music VanderCook College of Music is a Private university, private music school in Chicago, Illinois. It is the only college in the United States solely specializing in the training of music educators. Students may pursue a Bachelor of Music in Educat ...

(Chicago),

Foothill College Foothill College is a public community college in Los Altos Hills, California. It is part of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957, and offers 79 Associate degree programs, 1 Bachelor's degree pr ...

(Los Altos Hills), and

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 ...

(BA English, 1971). In 1977, Pearson began his long association with the poets who were then actively involved in creating

Language poetry 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 Scalap ...

, a new school of innovative writing that emerged in San Francisco, New York, and other places during this period. Among these poets were Rae Armantrout, Steve Benson,

Alan Bernheimer Alan Bernheimer (born 1948 in New York City) is an American poet, often associated with the San Francisco Language poets. Biography He attended Horace Mann School, and graduated in 1970 from Yale College, where he became friends with poets Steve ...

Carla Harryman Carla Harryman (born January 11, 1952) is an American poet, essayist, and playwright often associated with the Language poets. She teaches Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University and serves on the MFA faculty of the Milton Avery School of t ...

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 ...

, Tom Mandel,

Bob Perelman Bob Perelman (born December 2, 1947) is an American poet, critic, editor, and teacher. He was an early exponent of the Language poets, an avant-garde movement, originating in the 1970s. He has helped shape a "formally adventurous, politically e ...

Kit Robinson Kit Robinson (born May 17, 1949) is an American poet, translator, writer and musician. An early member of the San Francisco Language poets circle, he has published 28 books of poetry. Life and work Born in Evanston, Illinois, Robinson graduated ...

Ron Silliman Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wr ...

, and

Barrett Watten Barrett Watten (born October 3, 1948) is an American poet, editor, and educator often associated with the Language poets. He is a professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he has taught modernism and cultural studie ...

. In 1988, Pearson left the Bay Area, and has since lived in Ithaca (1988–94), Buffalo (1994–97), Detroit (1997–2006), the Inland Empire (2006-2018), and Oakland (2018-2021). He now lives in Houston, Texas.

Selected publications

*''The Grit,'' 1976, Trike Books (San Francisco, CA) *''The Blue Table,'' 1979, Trike Books (San Francisco, CA) *''Soundings,'' 1980, Singing Horse Press (Blue Bell, PA) *''Ellipsis,'' 1981, Trike Books (San Francisco, CA) *''Refractions,'' 1982, Origin (Series 4) (Boston, MA) *''Flukes,'' 1982, Privately Printed (San Francisco, CA) *''Coulomb's Law,'' 1984, Square Zero Editions (San Francisco, CA) *''Mnemonics,'' 1985, Gaz (San Francisco, CA) *''Catenary Odes,'' 1987, O Books (Oakland, CA) *''Evidence: 1975-1989,'' Gaz 1989, (San Francisco, CA) *''Planetary Gear,'' 1991, Roof Books (New York, NY) *''Mnèmoniques,'' 1992, Trans. Françoise de Laroque, Un bureau sur l'Atlantique (Royaumont, France) *''Acoustic Masks,'' 1994, Zasterle Press (Tenerife, Spain) *''The Devil's Aria,'' 1999, Meow Press (Buffalo, NY) *''Songs Aside: 1992-2002,'' 2003, Past Tents Press (Detroit, MI) *''Encryptions,'' 2007, Singing Horse Press (San Diego, CA) *''Extant Glyphs: 1964-1980,'' 2014, Singing Horse Press (San Diego, CA) *''An Intermittent Music: 1975-2010,'' 2016, Chax Press (Victoria, TX) *''The Coffin Nail Blues,'' 2016, Atelos (Berkeley, CA) *''After Hours,'' 2016, Singing Horse Press (San Diego, CA) *''The Markov Chain,'' 2017, Shearsman Press (Bristol, UK) *''Trace Elements,'' 2019, Tuumba Press (Berkeley, CA) *''Personal Effects,'' 2019, BlazeVox Books (Kenmore, NY) *''Exit Music,'' 2019, Singing Horse Press (San Diego, CA) *''Last Date,'' 2020, Singing Horse Press (San Diego, CA) *''Set Pieces,'' 2021, Spuyten Duyvil (New York, NY) *''Durations,'' 2022, Selva Oscura Press (Chicago, IL)

External links

Performance
by the author at SUNY Buffalo * The autho

at the Kelly Writers House of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. * The author in 2007 at the University of California Berkeley. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Ted 1948 births American male poets Language poets Living people Poets from California