 |
|
"I think the poet is the last person who is still
speaking the truth when no one else dares to. I think the poet it the first person to begin the shaping and visioning of the
new forms and the new consciousness when no one else has begun to sense it; I think these are two of the most essential human
functions"---Diane di Prima
|
Diane di Prima (August 6, 1934 - ) is an American poet
who is considered the first and most significant woman writer of the Beat movement. She
is described by other writers as a poet priestess, leader, activist, survivor, mother, publisher, feminist, Beat woman, Buddhist,
traveler, teacher, student, and healer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and
she is a second generation Italian descendant. Diane spent most of her life living in Manhattan.
While she lived in Greenwich Village, she chose to live a rebellious lifestyle, which included
sexual freedom and the use of drugs. She has lived and worked in northern California for the last three decades.
Diane di Prima started
writing when she was only seven years old and during the subsequent years has written and published thirty-five books of poetry,
and she also has written a numerous plays, and fiction. Her first poetry book called This
Kind of Bird Flies Backwards was published in 1957, the year that her first of five
children was born.
From 1961 -1969, in collaboration with Le Roi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka), di Prima published the monthly Beat newsletter:
The Floating Bear. Together with her
husband, Alan Marlowe, she founded the Poets Press which published 29 books of prose and poetry written by many new writers
of the period. Diane was also a co-founder of the American Theatre for Poets in New
York.
In 1969, Diane di
Prima published her autobiography titled Memoirs of a Beatnik, in which she depicted
her Beat lifestyle.
In 1971, di Prima published
her poetry book titled Revolutionary Letters. After she moved to California, she became involved with the Diggers radical political troupe and she studied
Buddhism, Sanskrit, Gnosticism and alchemy. In 1980, she helped found the Masters Program in Poetics at New College of California
in San Francisco.
She currently lives and
works in San Francisco, and she is one of the co-founders
and teachers of the San Francisco Institute of Magical and Healing Arts. Up till now, Diane di Prima has published 35 books
of poetry and prose, and her work has been translated into over twenty languages.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Her published books include the following:
This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, Totem Press, New York, 1958
Various Fables from Various Places,
(editor), G.P. Putnam, New York, 1960
Dinners and Nightmares, Corinth Press, New York, 1961
The New Handbook of Heaven, Auerhahn Press, San Francisco, 1962
The Man Condemned to Death,
(translator), no press listed, New York, 1963
Poets' Vaudeville, Feed Folly Press, New York,
1964
Seven Love Poems from the Middle Latin, Poets Press, 1965
Haiku,
Love Press, Topanga, CA, 1966
New Mexico Poem, Poets Press, New York, 1967
Earthsong, Poets Press, New York, 1968
Hotel Albert, Poets Press, New York, 1968
War Poems (editor), Poets Press, New York, 1968
Memoirs of a Beatnik, Olympia Press, Paris
and New York, 1969
L.A. Odyssey, Poets Press, San Francisco, 1969
The
Book of Hours, Brownstone Press, New York 1970
Kerhonkson Journal, Oyez, Berkeley, 1971
Revolutionary Letters, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1971
The Calculus of Variation, Eidolon
Editions, San Francisco, 1972
Loba, Part I, Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1973
The
Floating Bear: a Newsletter (editor), Laurence McGilvery, La Jolla, 1973
Freddie Poems, Eidolon
Editions, Point Reyes, 1974
Brass Burnace Going Out, Pulp artforms-Intrepid Press, Buffalo, 1975
Selected Poems: 1956-1975, North Atlantic Books, Plainfield, VT, 1975
Loba, Part II, Eidolon Editions, Point Reyes, 1976
The Loba As Eve, The Phoenix Book Shop,
New York, 1977
Selected Poems: 1956-1977, North Atlantic Books, Plainfield, VT 1977
Loba: Parts 1 - 8, [Book I] Wingbow Press, Berkeley, 1978
Memoirs of a Beatnik (revised),
Last Gasp Press, San Francisco, 1988
Wyoming Series, Eidolon Editions, San Francisco, 1988
The Mysteries of Vision, Am Here Books, Santa Barbara, 1988
Pieces of a Song: Selected
Poems, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1990
Seminary Poems, Floating Island, Point Reyes,
1991
The Mask Is the Path of the Star, Thinker Review Internatl, Louisville, 1993
Loba, [Parts 1 - 16, Books I & II] Penguin, New York, 1998
Dinners and Nightmares
[expanded edition], Last Gasp, 1998
Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years,
Viking, NY 2001
Fun with Forms [ltd. ed.] Eidolon Editions, San Francisco, 2001
Towers Down (with Clive Matson) Eidolon Editions, San Francisco, 2002
The Ones I Used to Laugh With, Habenicht Press, San Francisco 2003
Time Bomb, Eidolon Editions, San Francisco, 2006
Selected Poetry by Diane di Prima
Excerpt from interview with Diane di Prima
|
|
|
