Papers of Paul Vangelisti, poet, editor, translator, publisher, and radio producer. The collection includes correspondence with colleagues; drafts of single poems and collected works; translations; book and art reviews; notebooks; and materials relating to Vangelisti's poetry readings and literary conferences.
Paul Vangelisti Papers, 1970-2019 (MSS 487)
Restrictions: Original sound recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available for researchers.
Extent: 29 Linear feet (65 archive boxes, 3 record cartons, 17 oversize folders), + 23.3 GB of digital files
Digital Content
This collection includes digital content that is described in the finding aid.
Paul Vangelisti was born in San Francisco in 1945 and graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1967 with a B.A. in English and philosophy. He attended Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) for a year as a research fellow and moved to Los Angeles in 1968 to attend the University of Southern California, from which he was awarded a Master of Arts in literature in 1970.
In 1971 Vangelisti started a poetry magazine entitled Invisible City with John McBride, a friend in San Francisco. They also initiated the book publishing company Red Hill Press. After Invisible City ceased publication with its 26th issue in 1982, Vangelisti successively worked on the periodicals Boxcar, which he co-founded with Leland Hickman; Forehead, co-published by Beyond Baroque Foundation; Lowghost; and was the editor of Ribot the annual publication of the College of Neglected Science from 1992-2002. He also co-founded Littoral Books as a co-operative publishing outfit with fellow Los Angeles poets Dennis Phillips, Martha Ronk, and Jed Rasula. Vangelisti has edited a half-dozen anthologies of poetry, including one each in Italian and Polish. His anthologies of Los Angeles area poets, such as Specimin '73, were among the first such collections to begin defining the historical trajectory of post-World War II poetry in Southern California. His first such volume, Anthology of L.A. Poets, was co-edited with Charles Bukowski and Neeli Cherkovski. In 1999, he co-edited L.A. Exiles: A Guide to Los Angeles Writing, 1932-1998, an anthology of displaced Los Angeles writers, and most recently edited SOS: Poems, 1961-2013 by Amiri Baraka (Grove Press, 2015).
Vangelisti is the author of several collections of poetry, including Air (1973), Portfolio (1978), Another You (1980), Villa (1991), Rime (1983), Nemo (1995), Alphabets (1999), Embarrassment of Survival: Selected Poems 1970-2000 (2001), Agency (2003), Days Shadows Pass (Green Integer Press, 2007) and Azuza: A Sequel (Pie in the Sky Press, 2009).
He was awarded a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988. Vangelisti is also well-known as a translator of Italian poetry, particularly experimental poets such as Adriano Spatola and Antonio Porta and has received numerous awards for his translations from Italian, including Italy's Flaiano Prize and the PEN USA Prize for Translation in 2006. In 2010 Vangelisti received the Raiziss/de Palchi Book Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
Vangelisti has collaborated with a number of visual artists, such as William Xerra and Don Suggs, as well as dance troupes. He also produced many broadcasts of poetry readings through a long association with Pacifica radio station KPFK in Los Angeles, where he worked as a cultural affairs director between 1974 and 1982. While in that position, he initiated and directed L.A.T.E. (Los Angeles Theater of the Ear), which produced both live and recorded radio theater broadcasts of classic plays by Pirandello and Brecht, as well as contemporary playwrights. Vangelisti also worked as a print journalist for the Hollywood Reporter between 1972 and 1974.
From 1999 through 2015, Vangelisti was the Founding Chair of the Graduate Writing Program at Otis College of Art and Design. Vangelisti currently lives in Los Angeles and continues to teach in the MFA Graduate Writing Program at Otis.
Papers of Paul Vangelisti, poet, editor, translator, publisher, and radio producer. The collection includes correspondence with colleagues; drafts of single poems and collected works; translations; book and art reviews; notebooks; materials relating to Vangelisti's poetry readings, conferences and teaching; editorial work for magazines and other literary projects; and sound recordings. The collection was processed in three major parts.
ACCESSION PROCESSED IN 1999
This accession included manuscripts of poetry and prose which date from the early seventies through the late nineties, editorial material related to the magazine Ribot, book and art reviews, notebooks, and translations of Italian writings. Also included are sound recordings of Los Angeles Theatre of the Ear (L.A.T.E.) radio broadcasts. However, there is almost no material that addresses his activities as an editor and publisher of Invisible City and Red Hill Press.
Arranged in seven series: 1) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) EDITORIAL PROJECTS, 5) READINGS, PERFORMANCES AND COLLABORATIONS, 6) WRITINGS OF OTHERS, and 7) SOUND RECORDINGS.
ACCESSIONS PROCESSED IN 2009
Includes correspondence, poetry and prose written by Vangelisti, editorial projects, as well as flyers from poetry readings and performances. The bulk of the material dates from 1999 to 2007 and includes typescript drafts, page proofs of editorial projects, and translations, as well as a small amount of miscellaneous materials including daily planners, program information for the Otis College of Art and Design's Masters in Creative Writing, and photographs of Vangelisti.
Arranged in seven series: 8) CORRESPONDENCE, 9) READINGS, PERFORMANCES, AND CONFERENCES, 10) WRITINGS BY VANGELISTI, 11) EDITORIAL PROJECTS, 12) CRITICISM AND REVIEWS, 13) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, and 14) IMAGES AND RECORDINGS.
ACCESSION PROCESSED IN 2017
Arranged in eight series: 15) BIOGRAPHICAL, 16) CORRESPONDENCE, 17) WRITINGS, 18) EDITORIAL PROJECTS, 19) WORKS BY OTHERS, 20) TRIBUTES & REVIEWS, 21) MISCELLANEOUS, and 22) DIGITAL RECORDINGS.
ACCESSION PROCESSED IN 2021
Arranged in four series: 23) CORRESPONDENCE, 24) WRITINGS, 25) WORKS BY OTHERS, and 26) MISCELLANEOUS.