Ron Loewinsohn

has been associated with San Francisco poetry renaissance since the late 1950s. In the early 1960s he taught at San Francisco State College, and in 1963 he co – edited and published the little magazine Change with Richard Brautigan. His first book, Watermelons, contains an introduction by Allen Ginsberg and a letter from William Carlos Williams. He acknowledges both writers, along with Philip Whalen, as major influences. A later collection of poems, L’Autre, was the first full – length publication of the Black Sparrow Press. His later collections of poetry include, Meat Air and Goat Dances.  A complete checklist of his primary publications is included in Gary Lepper’s Bibliographical Introduction to 75 Modern American Authors. He was born 1937, in Iloilo, Philippines and came to the United States with his parents in 1945. He earned his bachelor’s degree from University of California in 1967 and his master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University in 1969 and 1971, respectively. He returned to Berkeley where he received a professorship in the English Department teaching American literature and creative writing. His awards and honors include the Poets Foundation Award (1963), the Irving Stone Award of the Academy of American Poets (1966), and the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize for Poetry (1966). His first novel, Magnetic Field(s), was one of five finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1983.