Description
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. LGBT Studies. Based on the author's life as a gay man and a poet, KING OF SHADOWS is a collection of twenty-one autobiographical essays that circle in and around San Francisco since the 1960s. The three longest pieces deal with Aaron Shurin's coming into poetry and gay identity via a high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, his deep relationships with poets Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan, and his personal history of venturing into San Francisco gay bars, starting in 1965 and ending just before Stonewall.
Author Bio
Aaron Shurin is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose. His writing has appeared in over forty national and international anthologies, from the Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry to Italy's Nuova Poesia Americana: San Francisco. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Gerbode Foundation. Shurin is the former Director of the MFA Writing Program at the University of San Francisco, where he is now Professor Emeritus. His books include A'S DREAM (O Books, 1989), Into Distances (Sun & Moon Press, 1993), Unbound: A Book of AIDS (Sun & Moon Press, 1997), THE PARADISE OF FORMS: SELECTED POEMS (Talisman House, Publishers, 1999), A DOOR (Talisman House, Publishers, 2000), Involuntary Lyrics (Omnidawn Publishing, 2005), KING OF SHADOWS (City Lights Publishers, 2008), CITIZEN (City Lights Publishers, 2011), and The Skin of Meaning: Collected Literary Essays and Talks (University Of Michigan Press, 2016.)
Author City: SAN FRANCISCO, CA USA