Karl Kempton


from Playground

Karl Kempton lives happily with his beloved wife Ruth in Oceano California consciously removed from literary centers.

His lexical & visual poems have been widely published with 45 titles, appearances in 40 anthologies and with numerous group exhibitions since the early 70’s. He edited and published the international journal of visual poetry Kaldron between 1976 and 1991. It has been available on the web since 1996. He conceived & co-founded LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL, a poetry festival in San Luis Obispo in 1983, and a monthly reading series, Corners of the Mouth in 1984; they continue without him.

He is an environmental activist working since 1977 for and with the local First People, the Chumash, attempting to save sacred sites. He stopped agricultural pesticide spraying in his neighborhood after 13 years of effort leading to farmland being converted to an organic vegetable farm now serving the neighboring area. His 25 years of ocean protection work currently is in the hands of a skilled and talented committee pursuing national marine sanctuary status: http://chumashsanctuary.com/.
 
 
previous page     contents     next page