DIANE DI PRIMA (415) 841-0717
Poet, Prose Writer, Playwright and Teacher
PUBLISHED BOOKS:
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, 1974, 1979
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: 1956-1976, 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
TimeBomb, Eidolon Editions, San
Francisco, 2006
MAGAZINE PUBLICATION:
Over 300
literary and popular magazines and newspapers.
ANTHOLOGY PUBLICATION:
Work has
appeared in over 100 anthologies.
FOREIGN PUBLICATION:
Work has
been translated into over twenty languages.
READINGS
AND LECTURES:
at over
300 Universities and major institutions. (Partial list on request)
EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE:
1961-69
The Floating Bear (literary newsletter), editor and publisher
1961-62 Kulchur,
contributing editor
1965-67 Signal,
associate editor
1968-70 Guerilla,
contributing editor
1971-72 The Sunday
Paper, columnist
1978-80 City
Arts, columnist
1987-93 Mama Bear's
News and Notes, columnist
1992-93 Harbin
Quarterly, columnist
PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE:
1964-69
Poets Press, owner: publisher, production, printing & editor
1974-now Eidolon
Editions, owner: publisher, production & editor
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
1970-72
Zen Center Writing Workshop
1971
S.F. YMCA Women's Writing Workshop
1971-75 Intersection
for the Arts, community workshops
1971-77 National
Endowment for the Arts, Poetry in the Schools program. Workshops and
residences in Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Minnesota, etc.
1972
Esalen Institute, women's writing groups
1974-97 Naropa
Institute, School of Poetics, faculty
1975-78 Poets
Institute, community workshops
1976-77 Napa State
Hospital, Artist in Residence
1976-78 Point Reyes
Dance Palace, community workshops
1978
Neighborhood Foundation, community workshops
1979
New College of California, visiting writer
1980-87 New College of
California, Masters in Poetics faculty
1983-91 San Francisco
Institute of Magickal and Healing Arts, cofounder and faculty member
1990
Hartford St. Zen Center, community workshops
1990
UCSC, guest lecturer
1990-92 California
College of Arts & Crafts, senior lecturer
1992
S.F. Art Institute, visiting faculty
1994
Atlantic Center for the Arts, Writer in Residence
1994
California Institute of Intergral Studies (CIIS), adjunct faculty
Integral Studies Doctoral program
1995
CIIS, adjunct faculty, Women's Studies Doctoral Program
2000
Columbia College, Chicago, Master Poet in Residence
1995-present Private classes in
poetry and poetics, San Francisco
Also workshops and intensive courses at
various Arts, Poetry or Women's Festivals from 1966 to the present.
THEATRE:
1961
Living Theatre, Monday night series, Stage
manager
1961-65 New York Poets
Theatre, co-founder and artistic director
1978-82 Lapis Trio,
multi-media performance group, co-founder
Plays
produced at
Judson Poets Theatre (New York City)
YMHA, New York
Cafe Cino (New York City)
Theatre for the New City (New
York City)
Intersection (San Francisco)
Point Reyes Dance Palace
La Mama Hollywood
Exit Theatre (San Francisco)
Peculiar Works (New York City)
Poetry
Used in Theatre Productions:
"Jazz Poets at the Grotto"
The Production
Company, Theater Guinevere, NYC, 1983
Loba used in the film "In Search of the
Goddess" directed by Christina Andreae
"Beat"
North Beach Repertory
Theatre, San Francisco, 1992 and 1993
"The Beat at Book-It"
Book-It Repertory
Theatre, Seattle, 1998
"The Beats"
Writers Theatre,
Chicago 1998
"Ave" from Loba directed by Ann
Filmer
Estrogen Festival,
Aardvark Theatre, Chicago, 2001
"Axis Mundi: The Story of the Witches"
The Sid Williams
Theatre, Courtenay, BC, Canada, 2003
Parts of Loba used.
Also work used in theatre piece based on
beat poetry in Tucscon, 1998
FILMS :
"The Beat
Generation, an American Dream" (featured interview)
"Poetry in Motion" (Canadian film,
featured performance)
"What Happened to Kerouac?" (brief
interview)
Also performed in several experimental
movies in New York in the 1960's including:
"Normal Love" by Jack
Smith
"In Between" by Jonas
Mekas
"The Queen of Sheba
Meets the Wolfman" by Andy Warhol
and short works by
John Herbert McDowell and George Herms.
VIDEOS:
"Fried
Shoes Cooked Diamonds" (brief appearance)
"Gang of Souls" (video, featured
interview)
"Beat Angels" (Mexican video, featured
interview)
"Little Italy" (Public Television video
by Will Parrinello, brief interview)
"Coming to Terms with Impermanence", a
documentary video of my life and work is currently being completed by
Melanie La Rosa.
ART SHOWS:
Group Shows:
1974
MOMA, S.F. "Rainbow Show"
1977 Point Reyes Dance
Palace
1985 S.F. Dharmadhatu,
"Dharma Art"
1989 Naropa Institute,
"Word and Image"
1996 Whitney Museum
& DeYoung Museum, "Beat Culture and the New America"
2004/05 S.F. State Poetry
Center @ California Historical Society, "Poetry and Its Arts: Bay Area
Interactions 1954-2004"
2005/06 Santa Monica MOMA
& 4 other venues "Seminia Culture"
2006 Passaic County
Community College, "Crossing Boundaries: Visual Art by Writers"
2005/07 Santa Monica Museum of Art,
Berkeley Art Museum (UC, Berkeley), Nora Eccles Museum of Art (Utah
State Univ.), Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art (Wichita. KS), Gray Art
Gallery (NYU), "Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle"
One-Woman Shows:
2001 "Blue Landscapes"
(watercolors), Passaic County Community College
2002 “Hibiscus &
Hills” (watercolors) North Light Book Shop and Cafe, Cotati,
California
2004 "The Interrupted
Sleep" (collages) North Light Book Shop and Cafe,
Cotati, California
2004 "The Moon Will
Claim Me" (collages) Bird & Beckett Books & Records
WORKS SET TO MUSIC:
John
Herbert McDowell
"Discovery of America"
(a full-length musical)
"Poets Vaudeville" (a
dance-opera)
"Whale Honey"
(incidental music for a full-length play)
John Braden (song writer)
"Dee's Song"
"November"
Andrew Stiller
"Pierrot Solaire"
(from Revolutionary Letters)
Peter Hartman:
"Elegy for Charles
Stanley"
Selections from Loba
"So Much of Space"
(from Dinners and Nightmares)
Works Set to Music (cont'd)
Anthony Davis
"Ave" (from Loba)
Robert Rowe
"Rant" (for voices
& interactive computer)
Joanna Lande (Iris: women's a capella
group)
Selections from Loba
Alexander Marlowe:
"Wyoming" (from
Revolutionary Letters)
Steven Lyle Smith
"Studies in Light"
(for mezzo-soprano and compact disc)
Improvisations:
Also read and performed with the
following musicians:
Chicago Art Ensemble,
University of Chicago (1967)
Robert Hunter,
Marshall California (1975)
Art Lande, Naropa
Institute, Boulder (1982)
Alexander Marlowe,
Great American Music Hall, S.F. (various dates)
Audio Book:
An audio book, a reading by the author of
all of Loba Books I and II, on 4 CDs (as published by Pengin) will be
available in 2007.
GRANTS AND AWARDS:
1966
National
Endowment on the Arts, for Poets Press
1966 & 1970
Committee on Poetry
1967 & 1970 Annual
Literary Anthology Award, Coordinating Council of Little Magazines
1973
National Endowment on the Arts
1978 & 1979 Lapis
Foundation
1986
Institute for Aesthetic
Development
1987
The Secret Six - Medal of
Valor
1993
National Poetry Association
- Lifetime Service Award
1994
Aniello Lauri Award for
Creative Writing
1994
Artist in Residence,
Atlantic Center for the Arts
1999
Received Doctor of
Literature (honorary degree) from St. Lawrence University
2000
Master Poet in Residence,
Columbia College, Chicago
2002 & 2005
Finalist (one of three) for Poet Laureate of San Francisco
2003
Finalist (one of three) for
Poet Laureate of California
2006
Fred Cody Award for
Lifetime Achievement and Community Service
Various
grants for The Poets Institute (Point Reyes), and as editor and
publisher of The Floating Bear, and of Poets Press and Eidolon Editions.
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