King of Shadows

(Paperback)

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Description

Based on the authors life as a gay man and a poet, King of Shadows is a collection of twenty-one autobiographical essays that circle in and around San Francisco since the 1960s. The three longest pieces deal with Aaron Shurins coming into poetry and gay identity via a high school production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, his deep relationships with poets Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan, and his personal history of venturing into San Francisco gay bars, starting in 1965 and ending just before Stonewall.

Aaron Shurin is the author of fifteen books, including Involuntary Lyrics and The Paradise of Forms, named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

Reviews

Praise for The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems " . . . it delightfully explores a melange of containers, frames, and matrices through which a poem can come to life." -- Publishers Weekly "Mr. Shurin is the Marianne Faithfull of avant-garde poetry. He's been working hard for years and known only to a small devoted readership. This book, though, collects pieces from over his career, and they sparkle and shine with wit and with true grace. He is one of a vivacious group

Author Bio

Aaron Shurin has published eight books of poetry and one of essays. His selected poems, Paradise of Forms, was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 1999. His essays on AIDS, Unbound, went through several printings with Sun & Moon Press. Since 1999 he has directed the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.