Far Out ─ Poems of the '60s

Far Out: Poems of the '60s includes poems by over 80 poets who remember that tumultuous decade from a wide range of vantage points. This collection brings to life the experiences of people who vividly remember the effects of the assassinations of Medgar Evars, JFK, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, who lived through the period of the Vietnam War and the protests against it, and who experienced the rise of Second-Wave Feminism, the Civil Rights Act and the emergence of the Black Power Movement, as well as the Apollo 11 moon landing. For anyone who thinks the 1960s were only about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, this book will be an eye-opener, although those subjects are also amply covered within these pages! Far Out examines the link between generational revolt and poetic expression, and the visionary tradition of nonconformist literature.

Wendy Barker’s sixth collection of poetry, One Blackbird at a Time (BkMk Press, 2015), received the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. Her fourth chapbook is From the Moon, Earth Is Blue (Wings Press, 2015). Other books include a selection of poems with accompanying essays, Poems’ Progress (Absey & Co., 2002), and a selection of translations, Rabindranath Tagore: Final Poems (co-translated with Saranindranath Tagore, Braziller, 2001). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals (including The Southern Review, Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Mid-American Review, Georgia Review, and Southern Poetry Review) and in many anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2013. She is poetry editor of Persimmon Tree: An Online Journal of the Arts for Women Over Sixty. Recipient of NEA and Rockefeller fellowships among other awards, she is Poet-in-Residence and the Pearl LeWinn Endowed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her website is http://wendybarker.net/. David M. Parsons, 2011 Texas Poet Laureate, grew up in Austin. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1961. Parsons attended U.T. Austin and Texas State University, receiving a BBA. After short careers of owning a haberdashery and Ad Agency, he moved to Houston to teach Marketing and Coach baseball and basketball at Bellaire High. He received his MA from the University of Houston’s Graduate Creative Writing Program in 1991. Parsons has taught Creative Writing and has coached the Handball/Racquetball Club/Team at Lone Star College since 1992 and lives in Conroe, Texas with his wife Nancy, an award winning fine artist & graphic designer. Parsons was a recipient of a N.E.H. Dante Fellowship to SUNY, the French-American Legation Poetry Prize, and the Baskerville Publisher’s Prize. He was inducted into The Texas Institute of Letters in 2009. He has published six collections of poetry; his latest is Reaching For Longer Water. www.daveparsonspoetry.com.