David Meltzer Poetry Reading and accompanying library display
A selection of works by poet David Meltzer is on display at the Simpson Library in San Francisco, to coincide with a reading of his work, Friday, September 4, 4:30–6:00 pm, Writers’ Studio, San Francisco Campus (free and open to the public).
A poet at age 11, raised in Brooklyn, and seasoned in North Beach, San Francisco, David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday and is considered a major figure in the San Francisco / Beat Renaissance. Meltzer came to prominence as the youngest poet to have work included in the anthology The New American Poetry 1945-1960.
At the age of 20 Meltzer recorded his poetry with jazz in Los Angeles and also became a singer-songwriter and guitarist for several Bay Area bands during the 1960s, including The Serpent Power, whose album made Rolling Stone's Top 40 List in 1968.
He is the author of many volumes of poetry including Arrows: Selected Poetry 1957-1992; No Eyes: Lester Young, Beat Thing, David’s Copy, and most recently When I Was A Poet (2011) and #60 in City Lights’ Pocket Poet’s Series.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet, author, publisher, and founder of City Lights, has described Meltzer as one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians.”In 2008 he received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, and in 2011 he was awarded the Bay Area Guardian's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012 he was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry.
Meltzer is featured in several documentary films, including Mary Kerr’s recently released epic, Wild History Groove, which focuses on artists and writers in North Beach. In August 2015, Two-Tone Poetry & Jazz, a CD featuring Meltzer, his wife, poet Julie Rogers, and saxophonist Zan Stewart, was released in San Francisco.
Meltzer's reading at CCA will center on the recent reissue of a special edition of Two-Way Mirror (Oyez 1977). It’s back with a new introduction and an ample addendum written almost 40 years later.