James Cushing retired in 2020 after thirty-five years teaching literature and creative writing in San Luis Obispo, CA, where he served as the community's poet laureate in 2008-2010. Cushing's poems have appeared widely and his collections include THE LENGTH OF AN AFTERNOON, UNDERCURRENT BLUES, PINOCCHIO'S REVOLUTION, THE MAGICIANS' UNION, and SOLACE, all from Cahuenga Press in Los Angeles. He lives in Hollywood with poet-painter Celeste Goyer, with whom he frequently collaborates; his daughter is the New York based poet Iris Cushing.