Ish River Punk Bioregionalism of Harry Smith and Gary Snyder

Selves O’er Leaping: Ish River Punk Bioregionalism of Harry Smith and Gary Snyder is a new chapbook I’ve written and assembled with help from friends. A tribute to elders of the Pacific Northwest creative culture. Published zine-style by Knw-Yr-Own.

Stretching some quotes and timelines alongside one another, the booklet compares the lives of these New Deal-era child prodigies, raised on Salish Sea shores. By nature, and by the nurture of frontier women educators, artists and writers, both Harry Smith and Gary Snyder recognized the treasure of their own imaginations.

Both were voracious readers. Both were attuned to the deep history and cultural power of the Indian Country surrounding them, in Washington State and beyond.

The essay tiptoes around the subject of Smith’s and Snyder’s separate yet comparable roles as spiritual influences on the stars of the Beat Generation—Ginsberg and Kerouac. Gary, portrayed as Japhy Ryder in The Dharma Bums. Harry, alternating verité roles in Allen’s life.

Their paths didn’t cross much, but reverberations from their internationally acclaimed work have flowed back to influence the Ish River ways of thinking and being human.

You are welcome to buy this chapzine via bandcamp.

VANITY PRESS MONOGRAPHER INTUITS BACKWATER BEAT ECHO - WEAVES HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC TO PRACTICE OF THE WILD - CUSTODY BATTLE FOR ADOPTED ANCESTORS LOOMS

Happy to have Ora Mae Cunningham’s art, Anemone Constellation, on the cover of this booklet.