David Cope

Born 1948, Detroit, Mi. Education: BA University of Michigan, MA+30 Western Michigan University. Married 50 years, 3 grown children. Pushcart Prize winner, 1977. Distinguished Alumni award, GRCC 1984. Nine books and two chapbooks published, winner of award in literature from American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, 1988. Editor and publisher, Big Scream magazine, 1974-2021. Grand Rapids Poet Laureate 2011-2014; editor of three anthologies: Nada Poems (1988), Sunflowers & Locomotives: Songs for Allen (elegies for Allen Ginsberg, 1998), and Song of the Owashtanong: Grand Rapids Poetry in the 21st Century (2013). In 2017, David completed The Correspondence of David Cope and Allen Ginsberg (1976-1996), now being published by Giant Steps Press. The Invisible Keys: New and Selected Poems 1975-2017 published by Ghost Pony Press, 2018). David’s work was discussed and appeared in Chinese translation by Zhang Ziqing in his 3 volume history of US poetry, He was only American poet conferee at the Suining International Poetry Week (2019), and his work from that journey appears in A Bridge Across the Pacific (2020). The David Cope Papers are maintained at the University of Michigan Special Collections Resource Center.