Excerpt from 88. Lesser Quantico

For over 26 years in radio (& years after that) Paul E Nelson has conducted interviews with authors, poets and activists who understand the shift from a mechanistic ethos to one of process, partnership and interconnection and worked to better understand and practice that himself, through being a parent, a poet, a husband, a literary arts activist, essayist, gardener, Subud member and other activities.

His research on a process perspective in poetics, Organic Poetry, extends the work of poets like Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov and his daily practice of writing an American Sentence has taken a form Allen Ginsberg created to new levels.

The Ambassador from Venus

His own poetry extends the North American West Coast tradition of the serial poem with the well-regarded book A Time Before Slaughter and the work in progress Pig War & Other Songs of Cascadia.

Allen’s inscription of Cosmopolitan Greetings

With this site you can book a workshop with Paul and bring him to your community. His workshops are transformative experiences for writers of all skill levels. This site provides many resources for people interested in this work, in the spontaneous method of poetry that has been his research focus since 1995 and in his various writing and interview projects.

About Paul’s most recent collection of poetry, A Time Before Slaughter (Apprentice House, Oct ’09), Michael McClure said: “Here’s one more big hunk of the American shoulder, as Olson carved his from the North East, Nelson takes his from the Pacific North West. It’s beautiful time-space in new words.

Anuncio’s Last Love Song

Maleea Acker

Amerarcana 2013

Ramon Gomez de la Serna

Waiting for a helicopter near here in 2000.

Ballard Library

Paul has written a 17 syllable sentence every day since the first day of 2001. Read more about the form he uses at American Sentences.

Making Waves

Force Field

A professional radio broadcaster between 1980 and 2006, Paul E Nelson has interviewed poetic luminaries such as Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Nate Mackey, Anne Waldman, Robin Blaser, Sam Hamill, Wanda Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, Brenda Hillman, Ethelbert Miller, Sam Hamill and George Bowering. He’s gathering some of his best interviews into a book project to be called American Prophets.

Flyer for screening of film on the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference

Notes on the Mosquito

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The Four Hoarse Men in retreat at Smoke Farm, August, 2012

David Abel

Learn more about the sound poetry troupe he works with, the Four Hoarse Men, here.

Walter Davis Jr.

Chang’an Hall of Fame

Paul Nelson on Facebook

Hear recordings of some of his poems here on Soundcloud.