Bruce Isaacson

{{short description|American poet and publisher (born 1956)}}

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| name = Bruce Isaacson

| image = Bruce Isaacson.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1956}}

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| nationality = American

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| occupation = Poet

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| known_for = Poet laureate of Clark County, Nevada

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Bruce Isaacson (born 1956) is an American poet and publisher. He was appointed the first poet laureate of Clark County, Nevada, a community of more than two million people where Las Vegas is located, June 1, 2016{{Cite web|url=http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/parks/Pages/cc-poet-laureate-bruce-isaacson.aspx|title=Clark County Poet Laureate : Bruce Isaacson|website=www.clarkcountynv.gov|access-date=2016-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417190432/http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/parks/Pages/cc-poet-laureate-bruce-isaacson.aspx|archive-date=2016-04-17|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/clark-county-poet-seeks-rid-art-form-its-bad-rap|title=Clark County poet seeks to rid art form of its bad rap|last=Przybys|first=John|website=Las Vegas Review-Journal|access-date=2016-03-15}} He initiated the Poets of National Stature series there, which includes readings by Juan Felipe Hererra, the sitting Poet Laureate of the United States{{Cite web|url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/arts-culture/poet-laureate-explores-the-details-life-make-readers-think|title=Poet Laureate explores the details of life that make readers think|last=Meurer|first=Ginger|website=Las Vegas Review-Journal|access-date=2016-03-31}} and Beat Legend Michael McClure.{{Cite web|url=http://www.facebook.com/events/1653322838263363/|title=An Evening with Michael McClure Presented by Clark County Poet Laureate Bruce Isaacson|access-date=March 30, 2016}} Other poets Isaacson brought previously to Las Vegas include beat feminist icon Diane di Prima, San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirshman, NY Beat Poet Laureate, Andy Clausen, and others.

Bruce Isaacson is best known in San Francisco Bay Area poetry as an organizer and poet in the Café Babar readings, an anarchistic poetry free-for all which led the poetry resurgence of the mid-1980s.{{Cite news|title=San Francisco Examiner|date=January 10, 1988|page=D9}}SF Chronicle, May 16, 1988, "The Bay Area is Still a Magnet for Poets", photo and quotations.{{Cite news|title=Poetry San Francisco|date=Summer 1988}}{{Cite news|title=Taking Poetic License|last=Contra Costa Times|first=Tim Goodman|date=April 2, 1990}}SF Weekly "Beauty and the Beats" by Cary Tennis, July 1991, cover article featuring reviews of several Babarian poets, including Bruce Isaacson. These readings helped inaugurate a new presentation style and aesthetic often called SF Spoken Word; the poets were called "Babarians".{{Cite news|title=Street Talk: Getting Small|last=SF Weekly|first=Anne Powers|date=1990}} His work is included in "The Babarians" section of Alan Kaufman and S. A. Griffin's The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry,Alan Kaufman and S. A. Griffin, eds., The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1999, pp. 469-470. and in New American Underground Poetry, Volume 1, The Barbarians of San Francisco - Poets From Hell.New American Underground Poetry, Volume 1, The Barbarians of San Francisco - Poets From Hell, edited by David Lerner, Julia Vinograd, and Alan Allen, Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC, Canada, 2010, pp. 304-321. With David Lerner, Isaacson founded Zeitgeist Press in 1986 to publish the work of the Babarians.{{Cite web|url=http://www.zeitgeist-press.com/|title=Welcome to Zeitgeist-Press!|website=www.zeitgeist-press.com (See "About Us")|access-date=2016-04-02}} Isaacson and Lerner were sometimes referred to as the T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound of the Babarians.{{Cite journal|date=1 September 1988|title=Bad Dog Blues and I Want a New Gun|first1=Bruce|last1=Isaacson|first2=David|last2=Lerner|journal=Small Press Traffic}} Zeitgeist focused on work from that genre, and a few notable Las Vegas writers, producing more than 100 titles in total.{{Cite news|url=http://www.Zeitgeist-Press.com|title=Zeitgeist Press}} Isaacson today serves as publisher and co-editor.

Bruce Isaacson was involved in poetry also in other cities. In New York City,Brooklyn Review 8, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, English Department of Brooklyn College, 1991, "For Barbara".Brooklyn Review 9, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, English Department of Brooklyn College, 1992, "After Doing Too Much Schoolwork" and "Feeling a Little Depressed". he was a surprise finalist in the first season of the famed Poetry Slam at the Nuyorican Poets Café.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nuyorican.org/poetry-slam/|title=Poetry Slam|last=Nuyorican Poets Cafe|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319155106/http://www.nuyorican.org/poetry-slam/|archive-date=2016-03-19|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://beehive.temporalimage.com/content_apps23/nysf/select/select.html|title=NY-SF POETRY ANTHOLOGY|website=beehive.temporalimage.com|access-date=2016-04-02}}Drunken Angel: A Memoir by Alan Kaufman, Viva Editions (2011), p 218. In Los Angeles, Isaacson was one of the featured poets at the Poetry in Motion series at Helena’s and Largo (Hollywood) and at Tommy Tang’s in NYC. These readings mixed long-term poets with poetry performances by some of Hollywood’s actors.{{Cite news|title=Knightlife|last=Stadiem|first=William|date=April 1988}} Isaacson also lived seven months in Leningrad immediately after the opening to the West in 1992.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}} He was involved in poetry activities at the Leningrad Writers Union. His poem, "Rolling into Red Square" appears in Signs of Life: Channel-surfing Through '90s Culture.Signs of Life: Channel-surfing Through '90s Culture, ed. by Jennifer Joseph and Lisa Taplin, Manic D Press, San Francisco, 1994, pp. 96-99. He has also lived in Michoacan, Mexico, moved to Las Vegas in 1995, and was active in many Las Vegas poetry communities, including readings at the Café Espresso Roma and Enigma Garden Cafe. His work appears in Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State.Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State by Cheryll Glotfelty, University of Nevada Press, Reno and Las Vegas, 2008, pp. 389-390.