David Cope

David Cope:  Born 1948, Detroit, Mi. Education: BA University of Michigan, MA+30 Western Michigan University. Married 53 years, 3 grown children. Taught Shakespeare, Drama, Creative Writing, Multicultural Literature, Women’s Studies, etc. at Grand Rapids Community College for 22 years; school custodian 18 years before that. Kent County Dyer Ives Poetry Competition, first place adult category winner, 1971, 1972. Pushcart Prize winner, 1977. Distinguished Alumni award, GRCC 1984. Seven books and two chapbooks published, winner of award in literature from American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, 1988. Editor and publisher, Big Scream magazine, 1974-2021. Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Mi. 2011-2014; editor of three anthologies: Nada Poems (Nada, 1988), Sunflowers & Locomotives: Songs for Allen (elegies for Allen Ginsberg, Nada, 1998), and Song of the Owashtanong: Grand Rapids Poetry in the 21st Century (Ridgeway, 2013). In 2021, David published The Correspondence of David Cope and Allen Ginsberg (1976-1996) with Giant Steps Press. 2017-2018 publications include The Train: “Howl” in Chicago (chapbook, Multifarious Press, 2017), and The Invisible Keys: New and Selected Poems 1975-2017 (Ghost Pony Press, 2018). David’s work was discussed and appeared in Chinese translation by Zhang Ziqing in his monumental 3 volume study, A History of 20th Century American Poetry  (2019. ISBN:  978-7-310-05606-4). His work has been extensively translated in Chinese journals, ranging from The Journal of Jianghan University (Wuhan, 2015), Poetry Monthly (Beijing), Houston Garden of Verses (2018), and most recently in Poetry Monthly (2020).  Cope was the only American poet conferee at the Suining International Poetry Week and Chen Zi’ang Poetry Awards in Sichuan, China (March, 2019). His work from that journey appears in A Bridge Across the Pacific (A Jabber Publication, 2020).  His “The Dharma at Last” appeared in Poetry in Michigan/Michigan in Poetry (New Issues, 2013) and “River Rouge” appears in RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music, ed. Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler (Michigan State University Press, 2020). The David Cope Papers (1972-2021) are maintained at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library, and his webpage, The Dave Cope Sampler, is online at the Museum of American Poetics.