Garrett Caples

{{short description|American poet}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Garrett Caples

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1972}}

| birth_place = Lawrence, Massachusetts, United States

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| occupation = Poet, editor, journalist

| years_active = Late 1990s–present

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Garrett Caples (born 1972) is an American poet and former music and arts journalist. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he currently lives in San Francisco, California, after fifteen years in Oakland.{{cite web|url=http://phillysound.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html |title=PhillySound: new poetry |publisher=Phillysound.blogspot.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} An editor at City Lights Books, Caples curates the new American poetry series, City Lights Spotlight.{{cite web|url=http://www.citylights.com/collections/?Collection_ID=313 |title=City Lights Books : City Lights Spotlight |publisher=Citylights.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} From 2005 to 2014, he wrote on hip hop, literature, and painting for the San Francisco Bay Guardian,{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/masthead |title=Masthead | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} and has written fiction on unusual sexual practices, like omorashi.{{cite web|last=Caples |first=Garrett |url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/02/fiction/the-omorashi-girls |title=The Omorashi Girls |date=11 February 2006 |publisher=The Brooklyn Rail |accessdate=October 21, 2011}}

As a hip hop journalist, Caples has been the first write on various Bay Area rappers, including J Stalin,http://www.sfbg.com/2006/04/25/ruling-party and http://www.sfbg.com/2010/02/09/80s-babies D-Lo,{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2009/11/04/d-lo |title=D-Lo | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Eddi Projex,{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2008/02/27/him |title=On like him | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |date=April 6, 2005 |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Traxamillion, Droop-E,{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/39/40/noise_new_bay_hiphop.html |title=Say 'Bay'; San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=May 5, 2014}} and Shady Nate.{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2007/11/21/out-shadows |title=Out of the shadows | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} He's also written cover stories on more established stars like E-40,{{cite web|author=sfbg |url=http://www.sfbg.com/40/22/cover_super.html |title=San Francisco Bay Guardian | News |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Mac Dre,{{cite web|author=sfbg |url=http://www.sfbg.com/40/07/news_dre.html |title=San Francisco Bay Guardian | News |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Mistah FAB,{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2007/05/22/holdin-weight-bay |title=Holdin' the weight of the Bay | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Husalah (Mob Figaz),{{cite web|author=Administrator |url=http://hyphythizzgo.blogspot.com/2006/11/dope-rap-and-religion.html |title=Hyphy Thizz Go: Dope, rap, and religion |publisher=Hyphythizzgo.blogspot.com |date=July 12, 2006 |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} and The Jacka (Mob Figaz).{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2009/06/10/tears-thug |title=Tears of a thug | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} Significantly, his interview with Shock-G of Digital Underground announced the end of that classic hip hop crew.{{cite web|url=http://www.sfbg.com/2008/02/13/shocked-g |title=Shocked, G? | San Francisco Bay Guardian |publisher=Sfbg.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011}}

Caples is the author of The Garrett Caples Reader (Angle Press/Black Square Editions, 1999), er, um (Meritage Press, 2002), The Philistine's Guide to Hip Hop (Ninevolt, 2004), and Complications (Meritage Press, 2007).{{cite web|url=http://versemag.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-review-of-garrett-caples.html |title=Verse: NEW! Review of Garrett Caples |publisher=Versemag.blogspot.com |date=April 22, 2008 |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} In 2006, Narrow house Recordings released a cd of Caples reading his poems with lo-fi musical accompaniment called Surrealism's Bad Rap. His latest book of poems, Power Ballads, appeared from Wave Books in September 2016.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wavepoetry.com/products/power-ballads|title=Power Ballads}}

Caples is also the editor of Pocket Poets Number 60, When I Was a Poet, by David Meltzer (City Lights, 2011) and Number 59, Tau by Philip Lamantia & Journey to the End by John Hoffman (City Lights, 2008).{{cite web|url=http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100220120 |title=Tau By Philip Lamantia and Journey to the End By John Hoffman, Pocket Poets Number 59 |publisher=Citylights.com |date=April 22, 2008 |accessdate=October 21, 2011}} His pamphlet, Quintessence of the Minor: Symbolist Poetry in English, was published by Wave Books in 2010.{{cite web |url=http://www.wavepoetry.com/catalog/83-quintessence-of-the-minor-symbolist-poetry-in-english?page=&by=forthcoming |title=Wave Books |publisher=Wavepoetry.com |accessdate=October 21, 2011 }}{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} With Nancy Peters and Andrew Joron, he is the editor of The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia for the University of California Press (2013). With Julien Poirier, he has edited Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems by New York School poet Frank Lima for City Lights Books (2016).{{Cite web |url=http://harvardreview.fas.harvard.edu/?q=features%2Fbook-review%2Fincidents-travel-poetry-new-and-selected-poems |title=Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems | Harvard Review Online |access-date=2019-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330191611/http://harvardreview.fas.harvard.edu/?q=features%2Fbook-review%2Fincidents-travel-poetry-new-and-selected-poems |archive-date=2017-03-30 |url-status=dead }} A shortened version of his introduction, "The Lives of Frank Lima," received the Editors Prize for Best Feature Article from Poetry magazine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/press/detail/90233|title = 2016 Prizes for Contributors to Poetry Announced|date = 21 September 2021}} His book of essays, Retrievals, was published in 2014 by Wave Books, and features essays he wrote over a ten-year period about various writers and artists who have disappeared from view or never achieved much visibility despite their significance, "written in Caples' signature blend of erudition and élan."{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/fall-arts-2014-books-mcsweeneys/Content?oid=3126420|title = Fall Arts 2014: Books: What You Need to Read and Which Literary Events You Need to Attend This Season}} Caples also edited Mule Kick Blues, And Last Poems (City Lights Publishers, 2021), the final book of poems by Michael McClure.{{Cite web|url=http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100707610|title=The Book}}