Everson, Landis 1926-

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Everson, Landis 1926-

PERSONAL:

Born 1926, in Coronado, CA. Education: Attended University of Redlands; University of California, Berkeley, B.A.; Columbia University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Luis Obispo, CA. E-mail—landise@webtv.net.

CAREER:

Member of Berkeley Renaissance during 1940s and 1950s; poet until 1961, 2003—. Also taught college for seven years, worked as a painter for three years, and renovated houses until 1994. Military service: Served in U.S. Army, 1945-46.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Emily Dickinson First Book Award, Poetry Foundation, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Everything Preserved: Poems, 1955-2005, edited by Ben Mazer, Graywolf Press (Saint Paul, MN), 2006.

Contributor of poems to periodicals, including Hudson Review, Kenyon Review, Quarterly Review of Literature, Occident, New Republic, Washington Square, PN Review, Fulcrum 3: The Berkeley Renaissance, and Poetry.

SIDELIGHTS:

Poet Landis Everson was a member of the Berkeley Renaissance of the late 1940s with Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, Robin Blaser, and others. "Although each poet's work was different," remarked New York Times contributor Dinitia Smith, "they were rebelling against East Coast formalism—their writing was full of symbolist imagery, colloquialisms, mythological and Biblical references; it was sometimes obscene, sometimes homoerotic." Everson published a number of poems in Poetry, Kenyon Review, and the Hudson Review, but when the group disbanded in 1960, he stopped writing for more than four decades, instead spending his time teaching and renovating houses. "I can't seem to write poetry if there is no audience," Everson told Kevin Killian in Jacket Magazine, adding, "I once thought that publishing poetry would give me the same incentive and enjoyment that I got from direct contact with poets, but after a couple of poems were published, I had no lift from it."

After Ben Mazer reprinted Everson's work in the anthology Fulcrum 3: The Berkeley Renaissance, the pair developed a close relationship, and Everson began writing new poems. In 2005 he received the Emily Dickinson First Book Award, given to an American poet over the age of fifty who has yet to publish a first book of poetry, and his debut work, Everything Preserved: Poems, 1955-2005, appeared one year later. Library Journal critic Diane Scharper praised Everson's "bright, sharp imagery," and Melanie Drane, writing in Foreword, stated that the work is "infused with startling twists of discovery." According to Rain Taxi Online contributor Adam Fieled, "The visionary quality of Everson's poems is complemented and magnified by an easy formal elegance, a sparing approach to language that leaves room for subtle ornamentation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Foreword, May-June, 2007, Melanie Drane, "Paying Attention: Poetry as the Canary in the Coal Mine," review of Everything Preserved: Poems, 1955-2005.

Internet Bookwatch, January, 2007, review of Everything Preserved.

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Diane Scharper, review of Everything Preserved, p. 128.

New York Times, October 17, 2005, Dinitia Smith, "Poet, 79, Wins Prize and New Audience," p. 1.

U.S. Newswire, October 7, 2005, "Landis Everson, Tony Hoagland, and William Logan Win Major New Prizes for American Poets"; October 17, 2006, "Poetry Foundation Announces Publication of Everything Preserved by Landis Everson."