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or a child in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is universal. It shows us in ever deeper
ways what it is to be human.” Sounds like a badass to us.
August Kleinzahler
Of the New Jersey-born Kleinzahler, Timothy Williams wrote, “His work
is a modernist swirl of sex, surrealism, urban life and melancholy, with a
jazzy backbeat. His personality combines Allen Ginsberg’s goofball
charm and Norman Mailer’s inveterate pugnacity.” As sweet as
Ginsberg but as petulant as Mailer? That’s badass in the best of ways.
Kleinzahler blends high and low art, refuses to be a part of the literary
establishment, and doesn’t mince words. “I don’t like to call myself a
poet,” he told Williams. “Most poets are shiftless, no-account fools.”
Kleinzahler, for his part, will remain the gruff, genius loner with a
perpetual raised eyebrow.
LE PORTRAIT MAGAZINE
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