About the Author

Sparrow was born in 1953 in Lenox Hill Hospital, in Manhattan. He grew up in a housing project in Inwood, graduated from Bronx High School of Science, flunked out of Cornell University, became a hippie, studied at Naropa in 1976 with Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen & William Burroughs, published his first book of poems in 1978 (Sparrow's Poetry Coloring Book, entirely hand- drawn, xeroxed at Richard Gartee's copy shop) returned to NY, finished college, began graduate school at CCNY (studying with Ted Berrigan). Soft Skull Press published three of his books: Republican Like Me, Yes, You ARE a Revolutionary! & America: A Prophecy--The Sparrow Reader. Sparrow is the longest-running contributor to Sun magazine, beginning in 1981. He has been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the American Poetry Review, Lungfull!, and many more. Sparrow plays flutophone in the New Crimean pop band Foamola. He lives in a doublewide trailer in Phoenicia, New York with his wife Violet Snow.