Faculty:  Diane Wakoski

Diane Wakoski was born in Whittier, California and studied at the University of California, Berkeley (1960), where she participated in Thom Gunn's poetry workshops. She currently teaches creative writing at Michigan State University.

Her early work was part of the "deep image" movement that also included Jerome Rothenberg and Robert Kelly, among others. She also cites William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg as influences and her later work is more personal and conversational in the Williams mode.

Diane Wakoski has published over forty books of poetry:

• Coins and Coffins (also see below) (Hawk's Well Press, 1962)
• (With Rochelle Owens, Barbara Moraff, and Carol Berge) Four Young Lady Poets, edited by LeRoi Jones (Totem-Corinth, 1962)
• Dream Sheet (Software Press, 1965)
• Discrepancies and Apparitions (also see below) (Doubleday, 1966)
• The George Washington Poems (also see below) (Riverrun Press, 1967)
• The Diamond Merchant (Sans Souci Press, 1968)
• Inside the Blood Factory (Doubleday, 1968)
• (With Robert Kelly and Ron Loewinsohn) The Well Wherein a Deer's Head Bleeds: A Play for Winter Solstice (Black Sparrow Press, 1968)
• Greed, (Black Sparrow Press, Parts 1 and 2, 1968, Parts 3 and 4, 1969; Parts 5, 6, 7, 1971, Parts 8, 9, 11, 1973)
• The Lament of the Lady Bank Dick (Sans Souci Press, 1969)
• The Moon Has a Complicated Geography (Odda Tala Press, 1969)
• Poems (Key Printing Co., 1969)
• Some Black Poems for the Buddha's Birthday (Pierripont Press, 1969)
• Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons (Perishable Press, 1969)
• Love, You Big Fat Snail, Tenth Muse (San Francisco, CA), 1970.
• Black Dream Ditty for Billy "the Kid" M Seen in Dr. Generosity's Bar Recruiting for Hell's Angels and Black Mafia (Black Sparrow Press, 1970)
• The Wise Men Drawn to Kneel in Wonder at the Fact So of Itself (Black Sparrow Press, 1970)
• The Magellanic Clouds (Black Sparrow Press, 1970)
• On Barbara's Shore (Black Sparrow Press, 1971)
• (Contributor) The Nest (Black Sparrow Press, 1971)
• The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems (Simon & Schuster, 1971)
• This Water Baby: For Tony (Unicorn Press, 1971)
• Exorcism (My Dukes, 1971)
• The Purple Finch Song (Perishable Press, 1972)
• Sometimes a Poet Will Hijack the Moon (Burning Deck, 1972)
• Smudging (Black Sparrow Press, 1972)
• The Pumpkin Pie: or, Reassurances Are Always False, Tho We Love Them, Only Physics Counts (Black Sparrow Press, 1972)
• Winter Sequences (Black Sparrow Press, 1973)
• Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch (Black Sparrow Press, 1973)
• Stilllife: Michael, Silver Flute, and Violets (University of Connecticut Library, 1973)
• The Owl and the Snake: A Fable (Perishable Press, 1973)
• The Wandering Tatler (Perishable Press, 1974)
• Trilogy (includes Coins and Coffins, Discrepancies and Apparitions, and The George Washington Poems) (Doubleday, 1974)
• Looking for the King of Spain (also see below) (Black Sparrow Press, 1974)
• Abalone (Black Sparrow Press, 1974)
• Virtuoso Literature for Two and Four Hands (Doubleday, 1975)
• The Fable of the Lion and the Scorpion (Pentagram Press, 1975)
• The Laguna Contract of Diane Wakoski (Crepuscular Press, 1976)
• George Washington's Camp Cups (Red Ozier Press, 1976)
• Waiting for the King of Spain (Black Sparrow Press, 1976)
• The Last Poem (Black Sparrow Press, 1976)
• The Ring (Black Sparrow Press, 1977)
• Spending Christmas with the Man from Receiving at Sears (Black Sparrow Press, 1977
• Overnight Projects with Wood (Red Ozier Press, 1977)
• Pachelbel's Canon (also see below) (Black Sparrow Press, 1978)
• The Man Who Shook Hands (Doubleday, 1978)
• Trophies (Black Sparrow Press, 197)
• Cap of Darkness (includes Looking for the King of Spain and Pachelbel's Canon) (Black Sparrow Press, 1980)
• (With Ellen Lanyon) Making a Sacher Torte: Nine Poems, Twelve Illustrations (Perishable Press, 1981)
• Saturn's Rings (Targ Editions, 1982)
• Divers (Barbarian Press, 1982)
• The Lady Who Drove Me to the Airport (Metacom Press, 1982)
• The Magician's Feastletters (Black Sparrow Press, 1982)
• The Collected Greed, Parts 1-13 (Black Sparrow Press, 1984)
• The Managed World (Red Ozier Press, 1985)
• Why My Mother Likes Liberace: A Musical Selection (SUN/Gemini Press, 1985)
• Celebration of the Rose: For Norman on Christmas Day (Caliban Press, 1987)
• Roses (Caliban Press, 1987)
• Husks of Wheat, California State University (Northridge Library, 1987)
• Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987 (Black Sparrow Press, 1988 and 2005)
• Medea the Sorceress ( "Archaeology of Movies and Books" series) (Black Sparrow Press, 1991)
• Jason the Sailor ( "Archaeology of Movies and Books" series) (Black Sparrow Press, 1993)
• The Emerald City of Las Vegas ( "Archaeology of Movies and Books" series) (Black Sparrow Press, 1995)
• Argonaut Rose ( "Archaeology of Movies and Books" series) (Black Sparrow Press, 1998)
• The Butcher's Apron: New and Selected Poems, Including "Greed: Part 14,"  (Black Sparrow Press, 2000)

• Form Is an Extension of Content (essay) (Black Sparrow Press, 1972)
• Creating a Personal Mythology (essays) (Black Sparrow Press, 1975)
• Variations on a Theme (essay) (Black Sparrow Press, 1976)
• (Author of introduction) Barbara Drake, Love at the Egyptian Theatre (Red Cedar Press, 1978)
• (Author of introduction) Lynne Savitt, Lust in Twenty-eight Flavors (Second Coming Press, 1979)
• Toward a New Poetry (essays) (University of Michigan Press, 1980)
• Unveilings, photographs by Lynn Stern (Hudson Hill Press, 1989)