Paul Fericano

Poet, Fiction Writer

Millbrae, CA
California US
Email: 
yunewsservice@gmail.com
Website: 
www.yunews.com
Twitter/X: 
@yunewsservice

Author's Bio

Paul Fericano is the editor/publisher and co-founder (with Elio Ligi) of the first parody news syndicate, Yossarian Universal News Service / YU News / yunews.com (1980). He is the former director of Instruments of Peace and co-founder (with John McCord) of SafeNet, an advocacy group for victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse (2003-2023). His poetry and satires have appeared in numerous publications, including The Wormwood Review, The New York Quarterly, The Huffington Post, Second Coming, The Truth Seeker, The Los Angeles Times, Harper's Weekly, Poetry Now, Mother Jones, Vagabond, The Three Stooges Journal, Paul Krassner's The Realist, Free Lunch, Outlaw Poetry, Punch (London), Charlie Hebdo (Paris), and Krokodil (Moscow).

He is the author of several poetry books and chapbooks, including Things That Go Trump in the Night: Poems of Treason and Resistance, My Life in A Coma, The Hollywood Catechism, Commercial Break, Driving to Reno with Freud, and Loading the Revolver With Real Bullets. He is also the co-author (with Elio Ligi) of the political satire, The One Minute President. In 1982 his poem, "Sinatra, Sinatra," was awarded the infamous Howitzer Prize and then dutifully exposed by the author as a literary hoax. Fericano also writes "A Room With A Pew," a regular blog/column on clergy sexual abuse and the healing process (roomwithapew.com).   

Fericano currently resides on the San Francisco peninsula.

Literary agent: 
Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli

Publications & Prizes

Fiction

Book:
The One-Minute President (with Elio Ligi) (Poor Souls Press, 1987)
Chapbooks:
A.D. Winans: A Brief and Casual History (Poor Souls Press, 2012)
,
Interview with the Scalia (Peace & Pieces Press, 1995)
Journals:
Berkeley Barb
,
Bogg
,
Charley Judd
,
Free Lunch
,
Gallimaufry
,
Greenfield Review
,
Impact
,
In a Nutshell
,
Kaleidoscope
,
Krokodil
,
Mother Jones
,
Nicaraguan Perspectives
,
Pinchpenny
,
Poema Convidado
,
Punch
,
Quixote Quarterly
,
San Francisco Bay Guardian
,
Second Coming
,
Small Press Review
,
Stone Country
,
The New Magazine
,
The Realist
,
Twigs
,
Vagabond
,
Velvet Wings
,
Whetstone
,
Wine Rings
,
Wormwood Review
,
Yellow Brick Road
,
Zahir
,
Zone

Poetry

Anthologies:
Medicine for Minds & Hearts (FUNGI Press, 2023)
,
Nancy Drew Anthology (Silver Birch Press, 2016)
,
Swallow Dance: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks (Silver Birch Press, 2014)
,
A Ritual To Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford (Woodley Press, 2013)
,
Bukowski: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose (Silver Birch Press, 2013)
,
A Bird Black as the Sun: California Poets on Crows and Ravens (Green Poet Press, 2011)
,
But Buddy I’m a Kind of Poem: A Sinatra Anthology (Entasis Press, 2008)
,
A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit (Greenwood Press, 2002)
,
The Starving Poets' Cookbook (Free Lunch Arts Alliance, 1994)
,
Contemporary American Poetry (Rowman & Littlefield, 1985)
,
Italo-american Poets, a Bilingual Anthology (Carello Editore, 1985)
,
The Comic Spirit (Genre: A Thematic Journal Published by the Students of the Dept. of Comparative Literature , 1983)
,
19 + 1: An Anthology of San Francisco Poetry (Second Coming Press, 1978)
,
Stoogism Anthology (Scarecrow Books, 1977)
,
California Bicentennial Poets Anthology (Second Coming Press, 1976)
Books:
Things That Go Trump in the Night: Poems of Treason and Resistance (Poems-For-All, 2019)
,
The Hollywood Catechism (Silver Birch Press, 2015)
,
Commercial Break (Poor Souls Press, 1982)
,
Loading The Revolver With Real Bullets (Second Coming Press, 1977)
Chapbooks:
My Life In A Coma (Poems-For-All, 2021)
,
The Reason I Am Here (Poems-For-All, 2021)
,
The Three Stooges at a Hollywood Party (24th Street Irregular Press, 2011)
,
It's Not Enough of Elvis (Poor Souls Press, 2009)
,
Sinatra, Sinatra (Poor Souls Press, 1982)
,
Driving to Reno with Freud (Malfunction Press, 1978)
,
Cancer Quiz (Scarecrow Books, 1977)
Journals:
2 Bridges Review
,
ASKeW
,
Attention Please
,
Aura Literary Arts Review
,
Café Review
,
Chicago Sun-Times
,
Circus Maximus
,
Cream City Review
,
Four By Two
,
FUNGI
,
Green Fuse
,
Guardian
,
Hard Pressed
,
Heavy Bear
,
Hollow Springs Review
,
Huffington Post
,
Hyperion
,
Image
,
Jean's Journal
,
Medusa's Kitchen
,
Mickle Street Review
,
MiGoZine
,
MiPOesias
,
New York Quarterly
,
Northern Pleasure
,
Open Wide Magazine
,
Over the Transom
,
Planet Detroit
,
Poet
,
Projector
,
Quilt
,
Quintessence
,
riverSedge
,
Sage Trail
,
San Francisco Chronicle
,
Solo Novo
,
Southshore
,
Star West
,
The Nomad
,
The Smudge
,
Village Idiot
,
Washout Review
,
Westerly
,
Wind
,
Xanadu
,
Zone
Prizes won: 

The Bulitzer Prize (2020) for "Things That Go Trump in the Night: Poems of Treason and Resistance"; A Mark Fischer Poetry Prize (2015) for "Howl of Lon Chaney, Jr."; C.J. Bryant Award for Excellence in Poetry, Great Britain (2014); The Santa Barbara Summer Poetry Workshop Competition (2008) for "It's Not Enough of Elvis"; The Prix de Voltaire (Paris, 1983) for "Commercial Break"; The Ambrose Bierce Prize (1983) for "Commercial Break"; The Howitzer Prize for Poetry (1982) for "Sinatra, Sinatra"; The Hibiscus Press Poetry Prize (1976) for "A Road Overlooking the Yard"; American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fiction Award (1969).

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Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now: 
James by Percival Everett, The Deep End: The Literary Scene in the Great Depression and Today by Jason Boog, After the Fall: New and Selected Poems by Edward Field, Particles: New and Selected Poems by Dan Gerber, One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist by Paul Krassner, War With The Newts by Karel Capek, Predmediations by klipschutz, Tiny Teeth: The Wormwood Review Poems by Ann Menebroker, Disturbances by Gary Ligi, The Three Stooges Journal by Gary Lassin (Editor), Groucho : The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer , Etudes: A Rilke Recital by Art Beck, Our Take on the Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Laurel Speer, The Ecstasy of Wanting by Paula J. Lambert, Trump Sonnets, Volume 8: The Final Four Months by Ken Waldman, The Unbreakable Child by Kim Michele Richardson, World In Costume by Hannah Stein, American Negro Poetry by Arna Bontemps (Editor), Mr. Nixon and My Other Problems by Arthur Hoppe, The Tricky Part by Martin Moran, Tropicalia by Emma Trelles, A Field Guide to Lies by Daniel J. Levitin, Mr. Congeniality: a klipschutz miscellany - poems, prose & neither by klipschutz, Ghetto Sunshine and Other Poems: 1997-2023 by Jonathan Hayes, The Unfolding: Poems by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

More Information

Gives readings: 
No
Born in: 
San Francisco
Raised in: 
San Francisco, CA
California
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Last update: Dec 11, 2024