Allan Davis Winans (born January 12, 1936, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

), known as A. D. Winans, is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, essayist,

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

writer and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Early life

He returned to San Francisco from

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

in 1958, after serving three years in the military. In 1962, he graduated from San Francisco State College. In North Beach he became friends with Beat poets such as Bob Kaufman and Jack Micheline.

Career

Second Coming

He was the founder of Second Coming Press, a small press based in San Francisco that published books, poetry broadsides, a magazine, and anthologies. He edited ''Second Coming Magazine'' for seventeen years from 1972 to 1989. Winans became friends with

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...

, whose work he published. He also published Linda King, Jack Micheline, Bob Kaufman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Levine, Josephine Miles, David Meltzer, and Charles Plymell. Seminal books include: *''North Beach Poems'' (Second Coming Press), 1977 *''Drowning Like Li Po in a River of Red Wine: Selected Poems 1970–2010'' (Bottle of Smoke Press) *''San Francisco Poems'' (Little Red Tree Publishing), 2017. In 2002, he published his memoir, ''Holy Grail: Charles Bukowski & The Second Coming Revolution''.

Other work

Winans had poetry, book reviews, and short stories published in over 1,500 magazines and anthologies. He wrote 68 books of poetry and two books of prose. A song poem of his was performed at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...

, New York City. In 2012 his song poem was included in ''Song Cycles'' (a CD by various American composers) issued by the University of Lafayette along with song poems by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, Langston Hughes, Kenneth Koch and others. His essay on the late poet Bob Kaufman was published in '' American Poetry Review'' and republished by The Writers Research Group. The article appeared along with a poem for Kaufman in a booklet produced by the Los Angeles Afro-American Museum. His book ''Cityscapes: A Quilt of Poetry'' was published by Cold River Press, Grass Valley, CA. Other books include ''Quiet Lightning'', ''Neighborhood Hero'' (San Francisco), and ''Language of the Birds'' (Artistic History Plaque/North Beach). Winans worked and retired from the U.S. Department of Education ( Office of Civil Rights) as an Equal Opportunity Specialist investigating discrimination complaints from 1990–1995. He was chosen under the Federal Comprehensive Employment Training Act for a position with the San Francisco Art Commission, where he worked as a poet and editor from 1975–1980. In 1976, Winans teamed with poet Paul Fericano to teach poetry to junior high school students. In 1980, he produced the Second Coming Poets and Music Festival honoring poet Josephine Miles, blues legend John Lee Hooker, and poet and community activist Roberto Vargas. Winans was an active participant in the Folsom Prison Writer's Workshop using Second Coming to publish several prison poets. Winans appeared in the documentary film, When I Die I Won't Stay Dead'' on the life of poet Bob Kaufman, screened at the 2016

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vid ...

''.'' He performed at venues including the Keystone Jazz Club, the Top of the Mark (Mark Hopkins Hotel), the Beat Museum, the Santa Cruz Poetry Festival, City Lights, and as the feature poet at the 2012

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

Jazz and Beat Festival.

Recognition

Winans was included in Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (Gale Research) and Contemporary American Authors (Gale Research). His awards include: * PEN National Josephine Miles Award for excellence in literature (2006) * PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award (2009) * Kathy Acker Award (The New York Acker Award) in poetry and publishing (2015). * Pig Iron Press Kenneth Patchen Award * San Francisco Arts and Letters Foundation Award for outstanding achievement and contributions to the Literary Arts.

References

External links

A. D. Winans books with erbacce-press

A. D. Winans web site

Litseen, A.D. Winans: second coming

* ttps://www.amazon.com/San-Francisco-Poems-D-Winans/dp/1935656155/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343665252&sr=1-2&keywords=San+Francisco+Poems, "San Francisco Poems" by A. D. Winans.* http:// www.winansfansite.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Winans, A. D. 1936 births Living people American male poets Beat Generation writers Outlaw poets Writers from San Francisco PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners