Neeli Cherkovski’s obituary in the New York Times
Click here to read Michael Rosenwald’s piece in the New York Times
NEELI CHERKOVSKI’S
SELECTED POEMS:1959-2022
LITHIC PRESS, MAY 2024
Neeli Cherkovski’s Selected Poems: 1959-2022 is the definitive collection from an American original. With his earliest poem in this volume beginning at age fourteen, Cherkovski reveals a youthful wisdom which grows throughout his career. For more than sixty years, Neeli has lived his life for the poem, chewing on the reality and wonder of being here, and the endless question of, what shall we do? His answer is clear: we must rejoice in the endless dilemma!
In his foreword to Selected Poems: 1959-2022, Charles Bernstein writes, “In Neeli Cherkovski’s poetry, beat rhetoric melts into wild riffs then returns to metaphor; bunts, dodges, bows head in respect to disrespect: onward, impulse as image, becomes phrases, becomes sublime moment of stutter, stagger, implosion; till waves of loss get tossed in a walk down a lazy street, as memory of a friend, the darkening night of the soiled –– soaring –– souring –– soul, the benediction of artfulness and refusal of refusal.”
CLICK HERE TO READ GARRETT CAPLES’ REMEMBRANCE (CITY LIGHTS BLOG)
CLICK HERE TO READ JOSHUA BODWELL’S REMEMBRANCE OF NEELI CHERKOVSKI IN ZYZZYVA
Neeli Cherkovski’s new forward for the expanded edition of his biography, Ferlinghetti, appears in the Brooklyn Rail. To read more please CLICK HERE!
Neeli Cherkovski’s new collection of poems, Hang On To the Yangtze River, will be published by Lithic Press in the fall of 2020.
The life of Charles Bukowski, laureate of lowlife Los Angeles, written by close friend and collaborator, Neeli Cherkovski. Forthcoming from Black Sparrow Press 2020.
This year marks Charles Bukowski’s centennial year and this one-of-a-kind biography is the closest readers will come to meeting the man himself—an unforgettable encounter no one should miss. Cherkovski shares intimate stories from his decades of personal experiences with Bukowski and brings the life—and complexities—of a great American writer into focus. As an additional feature, Cherkovski has written a new preface, “This Thing Upon Me Is Not Death: Reflections on the Centennial of Charles Bukowski”.
Coolidge & Cherkovski: In Conversation
Edited by Kyle Harvey
Introduction by Patrick James Dunagan
Forthcoming from Lithic Press 2020
Coolidge & Cherkovski listens in on an intimate conversation between two legendary American poets, Clark Coolidge and Neeli Cherkovski. Swapping personal stories and anecdotes, Coolidge and Cherkovski offer insight into a wide range of topics including the New York School, the San Francisco poetry scene of the 60s/70s/80s, the Language School, the Vancouver Poetry Conference, the Berkeley Poetry Conference, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Charles Olson, Bernadette Mayer, Philip Whalen, David Meltzer, Charles Bukowski, Gertrude Stein, Philip Whalen, William de Kooning, Philip Guston and more. Supplemental materials include Clark Coolidge’s Arrangement lecture from Naropa in 1977, as well as Neeli Cherkovski’s Random Poetics.
It’s Nice To Be With You Always: A Film About Neeli Cherkovski
Directed by Kyle Harvey
Premieres March 8th, 2020 at the Omaha Film Festival
48 min 31 sec
It’s Nice To Be With You Always blends together Cinéma-vérité style footage and conversations to create an intimate portrait of the poet Neeli Cherkovski. Imagine being dropped into the middle of a poem.
Film stills:
Neeli Cherkovski 