Ron Padgett

1942 (Tulsa, Okla.) –

Padgett and Brainard first met aged six, were mid-west high-school classmates, and remained close friends and colleagues for life. Padgett met the slightly older Berrigan at seventeen, building a strong friendship over hours of conversation; they followed each other to New York, and collaborated fruitfully. Koch and Trilling taught Padgett. Schuyler and Porter were among the poet/artist circle he mixed with in New York, where Dine and Katz also collaborated with him. Yu Jian was met in Sweden: with no common language, they clicked, eventually writing poems together in amused partnership with an automatic translation program.