Steve Kowit Explained

Steve Kowit
Birth Date:June 30, 1938
Birth Place:Brooklyn, New York
United States
Death Date:April 2, 2015 (aged 77)
Death Place:Potrero, California
Occupation:poet, author, teacher
Nationality:American
Education:Brooklyn College

Steve Kowit (June 30, 1938 – April 2, 2015) was an American poet, essayist, educator, and human-rights advocate.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

He received multiple awards for his poetry.[6]

Biography

Kowit was born in Brooklyn, New York where as a young man he frequently gave poetry readings at coffee houses. After a stint in the Army Reserve, he earned his BA from Brooklyn College. He moved to San Francisco at the age of 27 spending time in the Haight-Ashbury district. Kowit earned a MA at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) when he was 30. After refusing Army induction at the beginning of the Vietnam War – or as Kowit called it, "America's genocidal slaughter of the Vietnamese people" – he traveled to Mexico, Central and South America with his wife, Mary. After the war Kowit returned to the States and resided in San Diego.[7] [8] [9]

In San Diego he started teaching Poetry Writing in his Ocean Beach, San Diego home in the late 1970s. He went on to teach classes at San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego and Southwestern College. His poetry workshops in public schools were acclaimed for "making writing fun."[10]

Writing in the San Francisco Examiner, Sheila Farr wrote of Kowit's poetry:

An easy charmer in his book The Dumbbell Nebula, Steve Kowit backs up the bantering narratives of a coffeehouse poet with drop-dead images and subtle control ... Kowit's work grows out of the Beat tradition, speaking obliquely and directly of its heroes ... Kowit doesn't get stuck there in self-satisfied beatdom, though, because he can't take himself seriously for long enough. He tickles heavy subjects into giggles of submission without making them look trivial or foolish. Kowit seems to enjoy toying with sound and rhythm, like a cat patting at a spider, and is partial to slant rhymes hidden in unruly cadences. He folds his content into soft mouthfuls of sound ... the poems grow more delicious in their crazy daring, epitomizing Kowit's own particular sidelong, silly way of approaching the truth.[11]

Awards

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Last Will by Steve Kowit – San Diego Free Press. April 3, 2015. San Diego Free Press. 11 October 2016.
  2. Web site: Serving House Journal: Poetry: SHJ Editors: In Memory of Steve Kowit. servinghousejournal.com. 25 May 2020.
  3. News: PASSAGES: ACCLAIMED POTRERO POET STEVE KOWIT. April 2, 2015. East County Magazine. 11 October 2016.
  4. Web site: Steve Kowit's Obituary on San Diego Union-Tribune. U-T San Diego. 11 October 2016.
  5. News: San Diego bard of liberal causes. April 13, 2005. Los Angeles Times. August 31, 2021. B7. Newspapers.com.
  6. Web site: Serving House Journal: Poetry: SHJ Editors: In Memory of Steve Kowit. servinghousejournal.com. 25 May 2020.
  7. Web site: Steve Kowit dies at 76; San Diego poet championed numerous causes. Los Angeles Times. April 13, 2015 . 11 October 2016.
  8. Web site: The Sun Magazine The Whole Inexplicable Business. Kowit. Carol Ann Fitzgerald and Steve. thesunmagazine.org. 11 October 2016.
  9. Web site: Steve Kowit (1938–2015): Brilliant poet was revered professor. theswcsun.com. 11 October 2016.
  10. News: Author's poetry workshop makes writing fun. October 15, 2000. Arizona Daily Sun. August 31, 2015. D5. Newspapers.com.
  11. News: Farr. Sheila. Two California Poets Cover Territory Unexpected and Familiar. April 30, 2000. The San Francisco Examiner. October 1, 2021. 5 Book Review. Newspapers.com.

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