ABOUT THE BOOK & EDITORS
California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present is a groundbreaking new book presenting the work of 101 writers, the first historical anthology to provide a comprehensive survey of California poetry. An authoritative yet accessible collection, it brings together 150 years of the finest California poetry by authors of all schools and ideas. California Poetry also reveals the state's rich cultural and environmental legacy, from the early days of Spanish settlers to the more recent emergence of the Asian and Latino worlds: a reflection of lives closely tied to mountains, deserts, verdant valleys, and the vast shoreline of the Pacific Ocean. Together these poems present what it means to be a Californian.
From early mining settlements to the coffeehouses of San Francisco's North Beach, poetry has long been central to the California experience. Witness early settlers Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, and Bret Harte; the sardonic Ambrose Bierce; Robinson Jeffers hurling words at the unlistening sea; the bleak and brawling Charles Bukowski; the Six Gallery reading that launched the Beat era; the modern-day haikus of Michael McClure; and the Zen elegance of Gary Snyder's poetry. Taken together these poets, as well as Thomas Gunn, Francisco X. Alarcón, Robert Hass, and many others included here define a distinctive element of American life.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Dana Gioia (pronounced "joy-a"), an acclaimed poet, critic, and literary anthologist, is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the author of “Interrogations at Noon,” “The Gods of Winter,” and other volumes of poetry, as well as the pivotal “Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture.”
Chryss Yost is an award-winning poet and writer. Her most recent is “La Jolla Boys.” She is a co-editor of “Poetry Daily: A Year of Poems” and an editor of “SOLO,” a journal of poetry. She works at the Center for Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jack Hicks, a co-editor of “The Literature of California, Volumes I and II,” teaches California literature and creative writing at the University of California, Davis. He is co-director of the Pacific Regional Humanities Center.