Diane di Prima

Poet, publisher, editor, feminist, di Prima has been a tireless if underrated presence as writer and activist. At 19 she visited Pound daily for 2 weeks while in hospital custody. Baraka, lover and father to a child, also joined forces professionally. She helped establish The Poets’ Press with Ginsberg, McClure and Kerouac, and shared a building with Mekas (staging a strategic argument when busted by the police). O’Hara adopted her, Dine’s gifted assemblage went as deposit for an apartment, Duncan always came for Christmas. Kerouac drunkenly told her she’d never be a poet until she could forget about the baby-sitter.