David Lawton

Poet

New York City
US

Author's Bio

I am a native of Woburn, Massachusetts and a graduate of the theatre program at Boston University, where I was also a Guest Artist in the playwriting classes taught by Nobel Laureate (in Poetry) Derek Walcott. I have appeared as an actor Off-Broadway, had my plays performed Off-Off Broadway, and sang background vocals for ten years with the New York underground band Leisure Class. It was in the band's de facto headquarters in the Chelsea Hotel that I befriended beat godfather Herbert Huncke and San Francisco poet Marty Matz and was inspired by their embodiment of the spoken word. My work has appeared recently in Meat for Tea and Schuykill Valley Journal. I have been featured at such live venues as :Kiss*Punch*Poem, Cornelia Street Café and the HOWL Festival in New York, Dire Literary series in Cambridge MA, The Gold Rush Saloon in New Orleans and the Beat Museum in San Francisco. I served as co-host/co-producer of the 2009 "Downtown Does Huncke for His Birthday" event at the Bowery Electric which spotlighted Huncke's prose, and am also one of the interview subjects for "This Ain't No Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995" (Schaffner Press). I am an editor for greatweatherforMEDIA, and serve as one of the hosts for their live and virtual readings. Pixie Dust, the debut album from Hydrogen Junkbox, my lo-fi antifolk poemusic band with Aimee Herman and Eric Alter, is available on most streaming services.

Publications & Prizes

Books:
Inspiritive (Moonstone Press, 2021)
,
Sharp Blue Stream (Three Rooms Press, 2013)
Prizes won: 

Advisory Board - John Sinclair Foundation,

Team member - Playwrights Horizons, 2004 Broadway Show League softball champions; Zen Tigers, champions of 2010 and All-Borough Beats, champions of 2014 Jack Kerouac Memorial Softball Game.

Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now: 
LE(t)GO by Thomas Fucaloro, Mulberry Street Stories by Mary McLaughlin Slechta, This Other Eden by Paul Harding, Where Night and Day Become One: The French Poems by Steve Dalachinsky

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Celtic American
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Woburn
Raised in: 
Woburn, MA
Massachusetts
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Last update: Oct 04, 2024