Background
Douglas A. Powell was born on May 16, 1963 in Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia, United States.
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, United States
In 1991 Douglas A. Powell received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sonoma State University and a Master of Arts degree in 1993.
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
In 1996 Douglas A. Powell obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Iowa.
4446 Olive Avenue Olivehurst, California, United States
Douglas A. Powell graduated high school from Lindhurst High School.
(Tea is a series of poems about survival. Visually arresti...)
Tea is a series of poems about survival. Visually arresting, Tea is an experimental poem-cycle with traditional formal techniques built into its "wild" surface. The first section consists of portraits of young men, friends or former lovers, who have contracted or have died of AIDS. Pushing into the margins of culture as well as of the page, Powell combines all manner of subject and tone to create a work part memory play, part episodic novel, part funny pages - even part dance. Poems sing from the mouths of actor Sal Mineo, Batman's sidekick Robin, and the little girl from The Exorcist. A fugue for a disco singer, a letter to the poet's dog, an ode to the 1980s and a confession of love to a public toilet vibrate between the comic and the tragic. Like its central metaphor, Tea is gossipy, swirling, steamy, and sober.
https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Wesleyan-Poetry-D-Powell/dp/081956334X/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(The richly textured poems in Lunch, companion volume to D...)
The richly textured poems in Lunch, companion volume to D. A. Powell's acclaimed debut collection, Tea, tell the story of a life; like a conversation stretched out over many lunch breaks. Hailed as "formally innovative, disjunctive but tender and always emotionally expressive" by Forrest Gander, its poems are both masticatibly small and immensely satisfying. The life in question is bifurcated by the diagnosis of HIV; "time splits," in these layered and evocative poems, as the poet's memories of childhood and adolescence are fractured by the knowledge of adulthood.
https://www.amazon.com/Lunch-Wesleyan-Poetry-Powell-2000-10-27/dp/B01FJ0VR2U/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(In Cocktails, D. A. Powell closes his contemporary Divine...)
In Cocktails, D. A. Powell closes his contemporary Divine Comedy with poems of sharp wit and graceful eloquence born of the AIDS pandemic. These poems, both harrowing and beautiful, strive toward redemption and light within the transformative and often conflicting worlds of the cocktail lounge, the cinema, and the Gospels.
https://www.amazon.com/Cocktails-Poems-D-Powell/dp/1555973957/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(In these brilliant poems from one of contemporary poetry'...)
In these brilliant poems from one of contemporary poetry's most intriguing, singular voices, D. A. Powell strikes out for the farther territories of love and comes back from those fields with loss, with flowers faded, "blossom blast and dieback." Chronic describes the flutter and cruelty of erotic encounter, temptation, and bitter heartsickness, but with Powell's deep lyric beauty and his own brand of dark wit.
https://www.amazon.com/Chronic-Poems-D-Powell/dp/1555976069/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(D. A. Powell's fifth book of poetry, Useless Landscape, o...)
D. A. Powell's fifth book of poetry, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys, explores the darker side of divisions and developments, the interstitial spaces of boonies, backstage, bathhouse, and bar. With witty banter, emotional resolve, and powerful lyricism, this collection demonstrates Powell's exhilarating range.
https://www.amazon.com/Useless-Landscape-Guide-Boys-Poems/dp/1555976956/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(Published together for the first time, D. A. Powell's lan...)
Published together for the first time, D. A. Powell's landmark trilogy of Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails make up a three-course Divine Comedy for our day. With a new introduction by novelist David Leavitt, Repast presents a major achievement in contemporary poetry.
https://www.amazon.com/Repast-Lunch-Cocktails-D-Powell/dp/1555976964/?tag=2022091-20
2014
Douglas A. Powell was born on May 16, 1963 in Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia, United States.
Douglas A. Powell graduated high school from Lindhurst High School. In 1991 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sonoma State University and a Master of Arts degree in 1993. In 1996 Powell obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa.
Douglas A. Powell worked as a marketing representative for a business magazine, press release writer, wholesale tortilla sales representative, engraver, cook, waiter, shoe salesperson, telemarketer, teacher, landscaper, housepainter, receptionist, usher, and proofreader.
Powell has taught at a number of different universities, including Columbia University, Sonoma State University, San Francisco State University, and Harvard University, where he served as the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry. In 2004, Powell left Harvard for the University of San Francisco, where he teaches in the English department.
Powell is the author of the trilogy of books Tea (1998), Lunch (2000), and Cocktails (2004) - which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His most recent books are Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys: Poems (2012) and Repast: Tea, Lunch, Cocktails (2014). His subjects range from movies, art, and other trappings of contemporary culture to the AIDS pandemic. Powell’s work often returns to AIDS, and his first three collections have been called a trilogy about the disease.
(In these brilliant poems from one of contemporary poetry'...)
2009(A daring collaborative celebrity autobiography by two of ...)
2009(The richly textured poems in Lunch, companion volume to D...)
2000(Published together for the first time, D. A. Powell's lan...)
2014(Tea is a series of poems about survival. Visually arresti...)
1998(In Cocktails, D. A. Powell closes his contemporary Divine...)
2004(D. A. Powell's fifth book of poetry, Useless Landscape, o...)
2012