Father/Poet/Teacher Paul Nelson, co-founder of the SPokenword LAB.

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Author: Organic Poetry (Oct. ‘08, VDM Verlag, Germany) and

A Time Before Slaughter (Oct. ’09, Apprentice House, Baltimore.)

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Poems/Essays in: Golden Handcuffs Review, Jacket Magazine, Fulcrum, OlsonNow Blog, The Argotist, Raven Chronicles, Pacific Rim Review of Books, elsewhere.

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During 26 years in radio, interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Robin Blaser, Sam Hamill, Wanda Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, George Bowering & others. A Time Before Slaughter (Apprentice House, Oct ’09) is his first book of poetry and he writes one American Sentence every day.

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Paul earned his M.A. from Lesley University in Organic Poetry, a study of North American poets writing (to different degrees) spontaneously, including Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Michael McClure, Robin Blaser and others. He’s specifically interested in writing that is created in the moment, but with tremendous discipline, and essays at OrganicPoetry.org go into much detail on this subject.

He earned his B.A. in Communications in 1983 from Columbia College in Chicago, his hometown, and worked in radio for 26 years. During that time he produced over 450 original hours of whole-systems-oriented public affairs programs.

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He’s currently helping to re-found SPLAB in Columbia City with other literary-minded folks and the support of the SPLAB Board of Directors.