Bolinas, California Bolinas is an unincorporated coastal community and census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,483. It is located on the California coast, approximately (straight line dist ...

is an unincorporated community in Marin County, California with a reputation as an

art colony An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...

. This list includes any notable people known to have resided in Bolinas. *

Donald Allen Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an American editor, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project '' The New American Poetry 1945-1960'' (1960), one of the anthologi ...

, editor, publisher *

Dawn-Michelle Baude Dawn-Michelle Baude (born January 15, 1959) is an American poet, journalist and educator. Biography Born in southern Illinois, Baude moved to San Diego, California, in 1977 with her first husband Angelo Kolokithas (divorced 1979). Baude received ...

, poet *

Bill Berkson William Craig Berkson (August 30, 1939 – June 16, 2016) was an American poet, critic, and teacher who was active in the art and literary worlds from his early twenties on. Early life and education Born in New York City on August 30, 1939, Bil ...

, poet *

Ted Berrigan Ted Berrigan (November 15, 1934 – July 4, 1983) was an American poet. Early life Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army. After ...

, poet * Peg Bracken, author *

Joe Brainard Joe Brainard (March 11, 1942 – May 25, 1994) was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book ...

, artist and writer * Richard Brautigan, writer *

Gail Carriger Gail Carriger is the pen name of Tofa Borregaard, an author of steampunk fiction and an American archaeologist. She was born in Bolinas, an unincorporated community in Marin County, California, and attended high school at Marin Academy. She ...

, writer *

Jim Carroll James Dennis Carroll (August 1, 1949 – September 11, 2009) was an American author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work '' The Basketball Diaries'', which inspired a 1995 film of ...

, author, poet, rock musician * C. West Churchman, philosopher *

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani (; born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who found early success in the 1970s with her electronic music and sound effects for films and television commercials. Her career ha ...

, electronic music pioneer * Tom Clark, poet, biographer *

Joel Coen Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

, one of the Coen Brothers, screenwriter, film director *

Signy Coleman Signy Coleman (born July 4, 1960), sometimes credited as Signey Coleman, is an American actress. Background Coleman was born in Ross, California, on July 4, 1960. She grew up in Bolinas, California, and attended Tamalpais High School in Mill V ...

, actress *

Clark Coolidge Clark Coolidge (born February 26, 1939) is an American poet. Background As a teenager, Coolidge attended Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. Coolidge attended Brown University, where his father taught in the music department. After ...

, poet *

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 ...

, poet, author * Stephen Emerson, author * Paulette Frankl, artist, photographer, biographer * Robert Grenier, poet * Paul Harris, sculptor and lithographer *

Bobbie Louise Hawkins Bobbie Louise Hawkins (July 11, 1930 – May 4, 2018) was a short story writer, monologist, and poet. Life Hawkins was born in Abilene in west Texas, to a teenage mother. She was raised by her mother Nora Hall and her stepfather Harold Hall, wi ...

, poet * Stephan Jenkins, singer, songwriter,

Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993. After years of lineup changes in the early and mid-1990s, the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label reco ...

frontman *

Paul Kantner Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He con ...

, rhythm guitarist, rock vocalist, songwriter *

Harmony Korine Harmony Korine (born January 4, 1973, some sources report September 1, 1974)
" Retrieved on 2009-10-26. is an Ame ...

, film director, producer, screenwriter *

Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New ...

, poet with ties to the Beat generation * Anne Lamott, nonfiction author * Kenneth Lamott, writer *

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

, photographer * Mary Tuthill Lindheim, sculptor and studio potter *

Lewis MacAdams Lewis MacAdams (October 12, 1944 – April 21, 2020) was an American poet, journalist, political activist, and filmmaker. *

Jerry Mander Jerry Irwin Mander (born May 1, 1936) is an American activist and author, best known for his 1978 book, ''Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television''. In a more recent book, ''The Capitalism Papers'', Mander argues against capitalism as a ...

, activist, author *

Paul McCandless Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. (born March 24, 1947) is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute and soprano saxoph ...

, master oboist, reed player, co-founded

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, world class musician *

Frances McDormand Frances Louise McDormand (born Cynthia Ann Smith; June 23, 1957) is an American actress and producer. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Primetime Emm ...

, actress *

Barry McGee Barry McGee (born 1966) is an American contemporary artist. He is a well known graffiti artist, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin. Life and education Barry ...

, artist *

Duncan McNaughton Duncan Anderson McNaughton (December 7, 1910 – January 15, 1998) was a Canadian athlete, who competed mainly in the high jump. He went on to a career in petroleum geology. Biography McNaughton was born in Cornwall, Ontario, and grew up in V ...

, poet * David Meltzer, poet *

Walter Murch Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. With a career stretching back to 1969, including work on '' THX 1138'', ''Apocalypse Now'', '' The Godfather I'', '' II'', and '' III'', ''Am ...

, Academy Award-winning film editor, sound mixer * Bill Niman, founder with Orville Schell of Niman Ranch Meats *

Alice Notley Alice Notley (born November 8, 1945) is an American poet. Notley came to prominence as a member of the second generation of the New York School of poetry—although she has always denied being involved with the New York School or any specific mo ...

, poet * Arthur Okamura, painter and silk screen artist * Guy Overfelt, conceptual artist * Gladys Kathleen Parkin, wireless radio operator * Ponponio Lupugeyun, Coast Miwok, born c. 1799 to the Guaulen local tribe area of present-day Bolinas; insurgent * Bill Rafferty, television personality * Stephen Ratcliffe, poet *

Charles A. Reich Charles Alan Reich ( ; May 20, 1928 – June 15, 2019) was an American academic and writer best known for writing the 1970 book, ''The Greening of America'', a paean to the counterculture of the 1960s. Excerpts of the book first appeared in ''The ...

, professor of law at Yale University, author *

Aram Saroyan Aram Saroyan (born September 25, 1943) is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright, who is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem com ...

, poet, novelist, playwright * Strawberry Saroyan, journalist and author *

Orville Schell Orville Hickock Schell III (born May 20, 1940) is an American writer, academic, and activist. He is known for his works on China, and is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. He previousl ...

, dean of the

UC 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 uni ...

Graduate School of Journalism *

Tony Serra Joseph Tony Serra (born December 30, 1934) is an American civil rights attorney, activist and tax resister from San Francisco. Early life and education A San Francisco native, Serra was raised in the Outer Sunset district. His father, Anthon ...

, radical civil rights attorney, tax resister *

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

, rock singer, songwriter *

Sean Thackrey Sean Haley Thackrey (July 9, 1942May 30, 2022) was an American winemaker based in the town of Bolinas in Marin County, California. Prior to winemaking, he was a director of an art gallery.Fisher, Lawrence M. (November 7, 1993)"Tiny Wineries Wi ...

, winemaker * Susie Tompkins Buell, founder of Esprit *

Lewis Warsh Lewis Warsh (9 November 1944 – 15 November 2020) was an American poet, visual artist, professor, prose writer, editor, and publisher. He was a principal member of the second generation of the New York School poets,; however, he has said that � ...

, writer and artist * Peter Warshall, ecologist, member of the board of directors of the Bolinas Community Public Utility District *

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles fr ...

, poet *

Michael Wolfe Michael B. Wolfe (born 3 April 1945) is an American poet, author, and the President and Co-Executive Producer of Unity Productions Foundation. A secular American born in Cincinnati, Ohio to a Christian mother and a Jewish father, Wolfe converted ...

, poet, author, publisher, documentary film producer

References

{{reflist People from Bolinas

Bolinas Bolinas is an unincorporated coastal community and census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,483. It is located on the California coast, approximately (straight line dist ...