BARRY SPACKS
1931-2014
First Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, Californa.
Eleven poetry collections (most extensive: SPACKS STREET: NEW & SELECTED POEMS, from Johns Hopkins, 1982, winner of The Commonwealth Club of California’s Poetry Medal; most recent: A BOUNTY OF 84s (Cherry Grove Collections, 2012).
N.E.A librettist grantee; many poetry readings; poems in 18 anthologies and a multitude of journals, print and cyber; two novels, stories, essays, reviews.
First novel THE SOPHOMORE, returned from out-of-print in Faber & Faber’s “Finds” series.
Short Story Collection: There’s Always a Girl, 2013
For poems and novels: St. Botolph’s Arts Award, Boston.
Singer-songwriter, actor; Literature professor, M.I.T. (1960-1981); persistently Visiting Professor, U.C. Santa Barbara (Distinguished Professor in Humanities & Fine Arts, 1991). Senior Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) student of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche.
Two CDs , A Private Reading, from WC Studios, contains 42 poems (plus chat) from 50 years of work and Selected Poems from Regarding Women.
Art: numerous shows in and around Santa Barbara for the past decade. Memorial Show: “Spacks Street 108” April-May, 2014 at Sullivan Goss Gallery, 7 Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA