Diane di Prima (1934–2020) was one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century, and her career is distinguished by strong contributions to both literature and social justice. Di Prima and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) edited The Floating Bear (1962–69), one of the most significant underground publications of the sixties. Di Prima’s poetry and prose chronicle her opposition to the Vietnam War; her advocacy of the rights of Blacks, Native Americans, and the LGBTQ community; her concern about environmental issues; and her commitment to creating a world free of exploitation and poverty. In addition, di Prima is significant due to her challenges to the roles that American women were expected to play in society. Her Memoirs of a Beatnik was a sensation, and she talks about its lasting impact as well. Conversations with Diane di Prima presents twenty interviews ranging from 1972 to 2010 that chart di Prima’s intellectual, spiritual, and political evolution. From her adolescence, di Prima was fascinated by occult, esoteric, and magical philosophies. In these interviews readers can see the ways these concepts influenced both her personal life and her poetry and prose. We are able to view di Prima’s life course from her year at Swarthmore College; her move back to New York and then to San Francisco; her studies of Zen Buddhism; her fascination with the I Ching, Paracelsus, John Dee, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, alchemy, Tarot, and Kabbalah; and her later engagement with Tibetan Buddhism and work with Chögyam Trungpa. Another particularly interesting aspect of the book is the inclusion of interviews that explore di Prima’s career as an independent publisher—she founded Poets Press in New York and Eidolon Editions in California—and her commitment to promoting writers such as Audre Lorde. Taken together, these interviews reveal di Prima as both a writer of genius and an intensely honest, direct, passionate, and committed advocate of a revolution in consciousness.
Last Gasp proud to bring back this early. Boat classic Diane di Prima has long been recognized as on of the strongest voice of her generation, and one of the few women wh was able to break through the male dominated beatnik scene.
the rose, the thorn, the thistle the rose, the thorn, the myrtle the lily, the thorn, the thistle the lily & the myrtle the lily, the rose, the thistle the lily, the thistle, the myrtle The wind bent the palm trees again the room was ...
In Recollections of My Life as a Woman, Diane di Prima explores the first three decades of her extraordinary life.
The first full-length collection of new poems in decades from San Francisco's groundbreaking feminist Beat poet.
This is an essential collection for all those interested in Beat literature and twentieth-century American culture.
A poetry collection by friends, fans, and students of the late Diane di Prima furthering her call for revolution. This book features work by Anne Waldman, Lisa Jarnot, and Andrew Schelling among many others.
Memoirs of a Beatnik is an account of a young artist coming of age sensually and intellectually. The book grew out of the author's own experience as a bold and independent woman who dropped out of college at the age of 18 in order to write.
Diane di Prima is one of the greatest writers of her generation, and this book offers a window into its lives."—Chris Kraus "Extolled by a writer who radically devoted herself to the experiential truth of beauty and intellect, in poverty ...
"Diane di Prima, revolutionary activist of the 1960s Beat literary renaissance, heroic in life and poetics: a learned humorous bohemian, classically educated and twentieth-century radical, her writing, informed by Buddhist equanimity, is ...
A landmark sixtieth anniversary retrospective, this edition is a must-have collection, an invaluable distillation of the energetic, iconoclastic, and still fresh body of work represented in the ongoing series.