A Celebration of Lew Welch
Presented by Alta Journal and City Lights
A discussion with Brad Rassler in conversation with Garrett Caples. With readings by Kai Snyder, Judy Halebsky, Peter Coyote, and Patrick James Dunagan
What happened to Beat generation poet Lew Welch, and what can we learn about him from the extraordinary body of work he left behind? Journalist Brad Rassler spent months researching Welch’s life and death for Alta Journal. “I Went Southwest,” featured in Alta’s Issue 32 as a pullout folio, chronicles Welch’s poetry and untimely disappearance, those who knew him and studied from him, and Rassler’s own journey to better understand a beloved poet. We invite you to join us for an evening in City Light’s Kerouac Alley for an interview with Rassler, and readings of some of Welch’s poetry by Garrett Caples and others.
Lewis Welch was a poet associated with the BEAT Generation. He published and performed widely during the 1960s and taught a poetry workshop as part of the UC Extension in San Francisco, from 1965 to 1970. For a number of years Welch showed his poetry only to close friends. With the emergence of the Beat movement, however, Welch’s friends Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder began receiving national attention. Welch’s desire to devote himself completely to his poetry was revived, and he soon became a part of the San Francisco poetry scene. Donald Allen included one of Welch’s poems in The New American Poetry – the important anthology published in 1960. That same year Welch’s first book, Wobbly Rock, was published. He was drinking heavily during this time, but he continued to write extensively, and in 1965 published three books. Despite his burgeoning success, Welch’s bouts with depression and heavy drinking continued. On May 23, 1971, Gary Snyder went up to Welch’s campsite in the Sierra Nevada mountains and found a suicide note in Welch’s truck. Despite an extensive search, Welch’s body was never recovered. Donald Allen published much of Welch’s work posthumously via Grey Fox Press, now an imprint of City Lights Books. City Lights published Lew Welch’s Ring of Bone: Collected Poems in an expanded edition in 2012.
About ALTA Journal:
California and the West. From arts and culture, to technology and the environment, to food and fashion—what happens here happens everywhere. Alta Journal is a quarterly publication for anyone seeking an insider’s take on this most forward-thinking region.
Each large-format issue (the West demands a wide lens) demystifies the region with provocative essays, cultural commentary, deeply reported investigations, original fiction and poetry, sumptuous photos, topical cartoons, and more. Founded in 2017 by William R. Hearst III, Alta Journal provides an exciting—and much-needed—literary perspective on the West, sparking conversations that are as diverse and vibrant as the place itself.
In this era of rapid change, the award-winning Alta Journal offers an immersive reading experience like no other.
Made possible by support of the City Lights Foundation.