Beats at Naropa: An Anthology

Editors: Anne Waldman and Laura Wright

Contributors: David Amram, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Junior Burke, William S. Burroughs, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Ann Charters, Clark Coolidge, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rick Fields, Allen Ginsberg, David Henderson, Abbie Hoffman, John Clellon Holmes, Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, Edie Parker Kerouac, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure, William S. Merwin, John Oughton, Marjorie Perloff, David Rome, Edward Sanders, Gary Snyder, Janine Pommy Vega, Steven Taylor, Chögyam Trungpa, Anne Waldman, Philip Whalen, Laura Wright, Joshua Zim

Publisher: Coffee House Press (2009)

Amassed from the riches of the Naropa University audio archives, this collection offers an exciting new look at the Beats—whose influence lives on in the art and politics of our time. In this often spontaneous, conversational book, readers are introduced to the hard truths behind being a Beat woman, the haunting accuracy of William Burroughs’s world-view, the passion and energy of Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, Jack Kerouac’s unexpected musicality, Diane Di Prima’s foray into small press publishing, Michael McClure’s account of the famous first reading of “Howl,” and, most of all, the inspirations behind America’s most provocative and prescient thinkers.

“At Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, there has long been an illuminating, dynamic, ongoing exchange of ideas about the history and legacy of the Beat Generation—an exchange fortunately that has been carefully archived and preserved. This valuable anthology does not further embalm the ‘legend’ of the Beats. Instead it allows its readers to hear authentic voices —Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, John Clellon Holmes, Diane di Prima, Philip Whalen, etc.—as well as introducing the thoughtful and responsible work of leading Beat scholars.”

–Joyce Johnson