Will Inman (poet)

Will Inman (born William Archibald McGirt, Jr.) (May 4, 1923-October 3, 2009),^[1] was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and graduated from Duke University in 1943. He worked in a shipyard during World War II, and became an activist in 1947 after summers of work in the Blue Ridge mountains. A trade union member, he was called before the Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, then moved to New York to begin life anew, working in libraries while focusing on writing in his free time. From 1964 to 1971 he edited and published the seminal poetry newsletter Kauri, part of the Mimeo Revolution of the Sixties, where he published the work of Charles Bukowski, Clarence Major, Walter Lowenfels, William M. Packard, Ron Silliman, John Sinclair.^[2] In 1967 he was appointed Poet-in-Residence at American University, teaching there and at Montgomery College. He has also been an activist for many humanist causes including anti-war and gay rights efforts. He moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1973.^[1] He died in 2009 after having Parkinson's disease.^[1]

His letters, manuscripts, and publications are collected at Duke University and at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Selected bibliography

• Surfings: Selected Poems (Howling Dog Press, 2005)
• Leaps of Hope and Fury (ed. David Ray, Pudding Press, 2008)
• I READ YOU GREEN, MOTHER (Howling Dog Press, 2008)
• Surfing the Dark Sound (Pudding House Publications, 1998)
• 108 Verges Until Now (Carlton Press, 1964)

References