A pioneering performance artist, cultural and political activist, and author of more than 40 books of poetry, Waldman is frequently identified as one of the youngest writers of beat poetry, a movement that evolved in New York City and on the West Coast during the 1940s.
Waldman – along with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and others – became known as the Beat Generation, a group of writers who questioned mainstream politics and culture, defied conventional writing and were interested in changing consciousness.
An active member of the “outrider” experimental poetry community for more than 40 years, Waldman cofounded with Ginsberg the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colo. She serves as artistic director of the Summer Writing Program.
Waldman’s poetry books include “Kill or Cure,” “Marriage: A Sentence,” “Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble,” “Fast Speaking Woman” (now translated into Italian, Czech and French), “The Beat Book” and, most recently, “Manatee/Humanity” (Penguin Poets, 2009). She is coeditor of “The Angel Hair Anthology,” “Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action” and “Beats at Naropa.” Her play “Red Noir” recently was produced off off Broadway in New York City by the Living Theatre and directed by theater legend Judith Malina.
An activist for social change, Waldman has been involved with the Rocky Flats Truth Force, Poets Against the War and Poetry Is News. She serves on the board of the Bowery Poetry Club and Issue Project Room in New York City.
Each year the Visiting Writer Series invites writers to read from their work and meet with students. Recent visiting writers have included novelists Dorothy Allison and Susan Power. The series is supported by the Visual, Performing and Literary Arts Community and ASWSU.