North Beach poet discovered
A. D. Winans: a celebration
In my far off younger days I wrote short stories — even sold a few — and read, amongst many others, the novels of Kerouac and Burroughs. Though knocked out by their writing, I knew nothing of their backgrounds or their lives. The Beat era happenings passed me by as if on another planet.
Fast forward more years than I have fingers and toes to count. Poetry has grown in personal importance and I am trying to play catch up with the fifties and sixties, mainly via the indispensable Kevin Ring edited Beat Scene magazine, within whose pages I first saw mentions of one A.D. Winans — apparently an American small press giant.
The next step was when Kevin, who plays a pivotal role in this story, suggested I try Global Tapestry Journal, and the very first issue to come my way included A.D.’s ‘Mooney’s Poem#2’ and my appetite was well and truly whetted.
As well as editing Beat Scene, Kevin Ring also runs a mail order company called Satori Books, so I rang to see if he had anything by Winans on the shelf.
“Just had a new one arrive,” said the super Beat salesman. Which was how I got my copy of North Beach Revisited (Green Bean Press) and became a fan.
There are those poets who shout off the printed page, others who talk only to themselves or aim all around but not in your direction, and there are some who talk at you. With A.D. Winans I found a poet who talked to me. And that is just about it in a nutshell —the poems in North Beach Revisited talked to me. It was like coming home.
I have since managed to get hold of more of his publications, including 13 Jazz Poems (X Ray Book Company), which brilliantly combines poetry with jazz related forms and expression, and the powerful This Land Is Not My Land (Green Bean Press), a 1996 collection which I understand he has recently expanded and is hoping to have republished.
A.D. Winans is a writer who tells it like he sees it. He works to a personal agenda, pulls no punches, and is always willing to take on whoever he sees as the enemy — big time. He is indeed an American small press giant, with over thirty titles published to date, and hopefully with many more to come.
Apart from Global Tapestry Journal, he has also made recent appearances in British magazines Poetry Monthly and Moodswing as well as being featured in ...And The Beat Goes On..., a chapbook put out by my own Forty Winks Press. On the whole though his profile is nowhere near as high as it should be on this side of the Atlantic.
Opinions are, of course, merely subjective, but let me throw my hat in the ring and see if anyone wants to kick it. At his best I believe A.D. to be as important a writer as any currently active within the world of poetry.
Fast forward more years than I have fingers and toes to count. Poetry has grown in personal importance and I am trying to play catch up with the fifties and sixties, mainly via the indispensable Kevin Ring edited Beat Scene magazine, within whose pages I first saw mentions of one A.D. Winans — apparently an American small press giant.
The next step was when Kevin, who plays a pivotal role in this story, suggested I try Global Tapestry Journal, and the very first issue to come my way included A.D.’s ‘Mooney’s Poem#2’ and my appetite was well and truly whetted.
As well as editing Beat Scene, Kevin Ring also runs a mail order company called Satori Books, so I rang to see if he had anything by Winans on the shelf.
“Just had a new one arrive,” said the super Beat salesman. Which was how I got my copy of North Beach Revisited (Green Bean Press) and became a fan.
There are those poets who shout off the printed page, others who talk only to themselves or aim all around but not in your direction, and there are some who talk at you. With A.D. Winans I found a poet who talked to me. And that is just about it in a nutshell —the poems in North Beach Revisited talked to me. It was like coming home.
I have since managed to get hold of more of his publications, including 13 Jazz Poems (X Ray Book Company), which brilliantly combines poetry with jazz related forms and expression, and the powerful This Land Is Not My Land (Green Bean Press), a 1996 collection which I understand he has recently expanded and is hoping to have republished.
A.D. Winans is a writer who tells it like he sees it. He works to a personal agenda, pulls no punches, and is always willing to take on whoever he sees as the enemy — big time. He is indeed an American small press giant, with over thirty titles published to date, and hopefully with many more to come.
Apart from Global Tapestry Journal, he has also made recent appearances in British magazines Poetry Monthly and Moodswing as well as being featured in ...And The Beat Goes On..., a chapbook put out by my own Forty Winks Press. On the whole though his profile is nowhere near as high as it should be on this side of the Atlantic.
Opinions are, of course, merely subjective, but let me throw my hat in the ring and see if anyone wants to kick it. At his best I believe A.D. to be as important a writer as any currently active within the world of poetry.
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magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The