Joanne Kyger was born in 1934. At the age of five, she wrote a poem that got published in her elementary school's literary and news magazine. In high school, she wrote a front page feature story on the school newspaper with the help of poeet Leland Hickman. She pursued her interests in portey and philosophy at the University of California-Santa Barbara. In 1957, she moved to San Francisco, where she met Gary Snyder. She moved into the East-West House, where she began sitting with Zen Master Shunuju Suzuki Roshi. In 1960, she left for Japan and was joined by Snyder. They married 3 days after her arrival. Five days after their marriage, they married again at a Zen ceremony at Daitoku-Ji in Kyoto. They remained in Kyoto for 4 years, where Joanne wrote poetry, studied flower arranging, and practiced Zen Buddhism at Daitoku-Ji with Ruth Fuller Sasaki. In 1964, Gary and Joanne returned to San Francisco. Here, Joanne started writing in great amounts, gave readings, and participated in the Berkeley Poetry Conference. A year later, she and Gary divorced. In 1966, she traveled to Europe with Jack Boyce, later, staying in New York for a time. Eventually, she returned to San Francisco, where she and Jack purchased land in Bolinas in 1967. In 1974, she met Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche while she was teaching at Naropa Institute. Four years later, she also met writer/artist Donald Guravich at Naropa Institute. Donald and Joanne have lived together at Bolinas ever since. Joanne sits at Ocean Wind Zendo in Bolinas.
Diane DiPrima Carolyn Cassady Gregory Corso Gary Snyder Kenneth Rexroth Lucien Carr
Michael McClure John Clellon Holmes Philip Lamantia Bob Kaufman Jan Kerouac LeRoi Jones
Bob Dylan Charles Bukowski Anne Waldman Herbert Huncke
Peter Orlovsky Philip Whalen
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