Biography
Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, editor and translator born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A member of the influential New York School of poets and the author or more than twenty collections, his playfully profound work has attracted generations of readers. “Padgett’s plainspoken, wry poems deliver their wisdom through a kind of connoisseurship of absurdity” wrote the New Yorker of Dot, his latest collection. “Charmingly whimsical, and the more heartfelt entries are a testament to his status as one of the great living American poets,” wrote Publishers Weekly. Padgett received the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2018, presented for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry. His books include Big Cabin (2019), Collected Poems (2013), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and How Long (2011), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Padgett taught and directed the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. He lives in New York City, where he moved in 1960.