Author Biography
Gerald Locklin is a Professor Emeritus (retired) at California State University, Long Beach, where he taught from 1965, and presently teaches a course each semester. He has over 125 volumes of fiction, poetry, criticism, and memoirs, with over 3000 writings and interviews in print and online. Recent publications in English include Gerald Locklin: New and Selected Poems, 1967-2009; The Cezanne-Pissarro Poems; The Vampires Saved Civilization: New and Selected Prose, 2000-2010; The Dodger's Retirement Party: A Novella; and New Poems in Modest Aspirations. His books include Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet; Go West, Young Toad: Selected Writings; Candy Bars: Selected Stories; The Life Force Poems; and The Pocket Book: A Novella and Nineteen Short Fictions. Books of his have been translated into German, Italian, and Czech. Early works include The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen; The Firebird Poems; Down and Out; Three Mid-Century Tales; The First Time He Saw Paris; Hemingway Colloquium: The Poet Goes to Cuba; and a series of Jazz Chapbooks with Mark Weber. Gerald Locklin: A Critical Introduction, edited by Michael Basinski, was published in 2010. Locklin grew up in Rochester, New York, and was educated in Catholic schools and colleges, where he studied Latin, Greek, and French; completed his PhD in English at the U of Arizona in 1964. His earlier years were consumed with athletics and he remains an avid fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Yankees. Major influences among modern and contemporary authors include Hemingway, Bukowski, Edward Field, John Fante, Donald Barthelme, Richard Brautigan, Ron Koertge, Frank O'Hara, Sylvia Plath, A.S.Byatt, the French New Wave filmmakers and Objectivist novelists. From the age of 23 to 52 his recreations were largely associated with alcohol, what he sometimes refers to as traditional male pursuits. In 1993 he nearly died of pulmonary embolisms, after which he thought it prudent to alter his lifestyle. He stays alive by swimming (badly), walking, and lifting weights. He gives frequent literary readings at which he indulges to excess in singing, dancing, and stupidity. Locklin has seven children-the abiding loves of his life--and, so far, nine grandchildren, from three marriages. A website is maintained for him at www.geraldlocklin.org by Todd Fox. Many Locklin books are available from amazon.com or from his publishers, including World Parade Books, Aortic Books, Lummox Press, Water Row Books, and Event Horizon Press.
