Biography

Eileen Myles was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1949, educated in catholic schools, graduated from U. Mass (Boston) in 1971, and moved to New York City in 1974 to be a poet. Her formal poetic education began at St. Mark's Poetry Project, where workshops were led by Alice Notley, Ted Berrigan, and others. Myles first became known to many Americans through her openly female write-in campaign for President of the United States in 1991-92. She has been described as "one of the savviest and most restless intellects in contemporary literature," and publications include Not Me (1991), Chelsea Girls (1994), Cool for You (2000), Skies (2001), and Sorry Tree (2007).  In 2010 she was awarded a Warhol/Creative Capital Grant to write The Importance of Being Iceland, a collection of art and travel essays. Inferno (a poet's novel) received a 2011 Lambda Award and was described by John Ashbery as “zingingly funny and melancholy.” Her most recent collection of poetry is Snowflake/different streets. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow for a forthcoming work of nonfiction, Afterglow.

Publications

 Poetry

Snowflake (new poems)/ different streets (newer poems)
Seattle: Wave Books, 2012

Sorry, Tree (poems)
Seattle: Wave Books, 2007

Tow (with drawings by artist Larry C. Collins)
New York: Lospeccio Press, 2005

on my way
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Faux Press, 2001

Skies: Poems
Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 2001

School of Fish
Santa Rose, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1997

Maxfield Parrish: Early and New Poems
Santa Rosa, California: Black Sparrow Press, 1995

Not Me
New York: Semiotext(e), 1991

Sappho's Boat
Los Angeles: Little Caesar, 1982

A Fresh Young Voice from the Plains
New York: Power Mad Press, 1981

Polar Ode (with Anne Waldman)
New York: Dead Duke Books, 1979

The Irony of the Leash
New York: Jim Brodey Books, 1978

Fiction

Inferno: a poet's novel
New York: OR Books, 2010

Cool for You (novel)
New York: Soft Skull Press, 2000

Chelsea Girls (fiction)
Santa Rosa, California: Black Sparrow Press, 1994

1969 (fiction)
New York: Hanuman Books, 1989

Bread and Water (stories)
New York: Hanuman Books, 1986

Criticism

The Importance of Being Iceland (art writing)
New York: Semiotext(e), MIT Press, 2009

Anthology

The New Fuck You, adventures in lesbian reading
co-edited with Liz Kotz
New York: Semiotext(e), MIT Press, 1995