Poetry Resume: Robert Lipton
Currently Poet
Laureate, Richmond, CA 6/2017-6/2019.
Poetry Book Publication
“ A Complex Bravery” published by Marick
Press, 2006.
Review of book in Poetry
International, Winter 2008
Book Chapter (non-fiction): Bearing Witness in the Promised Land. In:
Live from Palestine. Live
From Palestine: International and Palestinian Direct Action Against the
Israeli Occupation Nancy
Stohlman (Editor) and Laurieann Aladin (Editor); Preface by Noam Chomsky;
Foreword by Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi.
South End Press. 2003 http://www.ccmep.org/2003%20Articles/090203_bearing_witness_in.htm
Selected Publications:
Echo 681, Interbang,
Jacaranda Review, Squaw Valley Review (1994 and 2003), King Log, Shades of
Contradiction, The Texas Observer, Parthenon West, New Orleans Quarterly
(Pushcart prize nominee), Journal of Human Architecture
White Print Inc (www.whiteprintinc.org/blog/?category_name=rob-lipton)
Quillpuddle, Opium Magazine
(opiummagazine.com), Red Wheelbarrow, Southword (Gregory O’Donoghue Competition. )
Workshop experience:
-Weekly poetry workshop
leader at the Berkeley Art Center, 1999-2003.
-Previous: Participated in and helped with the Beyond
Baroque weekly poetry -workshop, 1988-1993 (With Bob Flanagan and Mark
Robin): 1997-98.
-Organized workshop with
Gerald Stern on the current state of poetry, May 1, 2004, Berkeley Art Center.
Fellowship and writer’s colony experience:
- One month fellowship to
Vermont Studio Center, October, 2001
- Attended the Squaw Valley
Community of Writers workshop 1994 and
2003
- One month fellowship at
Ragdale, November, 2011.
- 1st placed poem in the Gregory O’Donoghue Competition 2018
- Tyrone Guthrie Centre poetry residency.
Performance:
-Hosted poetry reading series
at Mama Pajama’s Café and vintage clothing store, Los Angeles, 1989-1992. Leading poets from the region were invited to
read in this monthly series. (Bob Flanagan, Viggo Mortenson, Cecilia Wolloch,
David St. John).
-Featured Reader: Beyond
Baroque, June 1991
-Hosted Poetry evening at the
Berkeley Art Center, December 1, 1999.
Benefit reading for the radio station KPFA, among those reading were
Jack Foley, Ed Markman, Jennifer Stone.
-Organized
Poets for Peace reading at the Berkeley Art Center. May 1st, 2004. Readers included Gerald Stern, Ilya Kamisky,
Polina Barskova and Meredith Striker and Robert Lipton.
-Poets
for Peace reading participant (September 19th 2004) with Maxine Hong Kingston, Ilya Kaminsky, Peter Streckfus, Fred
Marchant, and Dan Bellm.
Funding/arts development
experience:
Developing literary arts
center (I am the founding director) at
the Berkeley Art Center with Jaime Robles, Robin Henderson and Eliza Schefler
of Rhythm and Muse. The center had an on-going reading series, occasional
reading programs and workshops, visiting writers and a weekly workshop (which
I lead).
Received grant from the Berkeley Community Arts program and from the
Alameda community arts program.
Book reviews:
Review of boysgirls by Katie
Farris, http://poetryflash.org/reviews/?p=LIPTON-Secrets_Almost_Told-FARRIS_boysgirls
References:
Gerald Stern
7 Gracie Square Apt
12-a
NY, NY 10028
Email: geraldstern2003@yahoo.com
Cell: 9098 500 2467
Blurb: “ Lipton’s language is
fresh and fiery, full of a strong moral sense that underlies it and causes you
to catch your breath on first encounter.
This does not prevent him from using diverse poetic strategies,
experiments based variously on traditional forms but only based on them. His subject
matter is sometimes implicit and sometimes direct, but always discovered
through the crispest of language. His
poetry is rich; he is a huge talent.”
Ilya Kaminsky
The Department of English
& Comparative Literature
MFA Creative Writing Program
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
SDSU Mail Code MC 6020
Arts & Letters 226
San Diego, CA 92182-6020
MFA Creative Writing Program
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
SDSU Mail Code MC 6020
Arts & Letters 226
San Diego, CA 92182-6020
Email: ik001f@yahoo.com
Cell: 603 548 1305
Blurb for “A Complex Bravery”: “This is
the book of childhood, love and war. Lipton’s
poems are a gang that takes no prisoners: his voice is direct, his tone is clear, his diction is ironic—but his irony is earned and felt-through. The manuscript is a book of elegies that refuse to go mourning without at least a little bit of protest. Whatever his loss is, Lipton’s voice's always quirky and alive, always ready to report the world straight to us, without patronizing, for “this battle is parent by parent / and I have homework to do.”
poems are a gang that takes no prisoners: his voice is direct, his tone is clear, his diction is ironic—but his irony is earned and felt-through. The manuscript is a book of elegies that refuse to go mourning without at least a little bit of protest. Whatever his loss is, Lipton’s voice's always quirky and alive, always ready to report the world straight to us, without patronizing, for “this battle is parent by parent / and I have homework to do.”
A. Van Jordan
Collegiate Professor
Brian Turner
Sierra Nevada College
MFA Program Chair