Padgett’s father was a bootlegger in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[3] He influenced many of Padgett's works, particularly in the writer's taste for independence and a willingness to deviate from rules, even his own.[3] This would later be described as a stubborn streak of boyishness, allowing a wry innocence in his poetry.[4]
Padgett started writing poetry at the age of 13.[5] In an interview, the poet said that he was inspired to write when a girl he had a big crush on did not return his affection.[6] In high school, Padgett became interested in visual arts while continuing to write poetry. He befriendedJoe Brainard, the visual artist who also became a well-known writer.[7] They, with fellowCentral High studentDick Gallup, co-founded theavant-garde literary journalThe White Dove Review.[8] Padgett and Gallup solicited work forTheWhite Dove fromBlack Mountain andBeat Movement writers such asAllen Ginsberg,Jack Kerouac,LeRoi Jones,Paul Blackburn,Gilbert Sorrentino, andRobert Creeley. After five issues, Padgett, on his way to college, retired theWhite Dove.
In 1960, Padgett left Tulsa to study at Columbia College in New York City. At that time he was interested in Pound, Rimbaud, the Black Mountain poets, and the Beats[7] but soon he fell under the spell of theNew York School,[9] particularly the poetry ofFrank O'Hara,John Ashbery,James Schuyler, andKenneth Koch.[10] In an interview, Padgett said that he went to Columbia partly because Ginsberg and Kerouac had gone there.[7] After receiving his B.A. (1964), Padgett briefly studiedcreative writing atWagner College withKay Boyle,Howard Nemerov, and Koch. On aFulbright Fellowship[11] (Paris, 1965–66) he studied 20th-century French poetry.
From 1968 to 1969 Padgett was a workshop leader forThe Poetry Project atSt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in New York City. Two pieces of his early work from this period were published in0 to 9 magazine. With David Shapiro, Padgett co-editedAn Anthology of New York Poets, published by Random House in 1970. He foundedThe Poetry Project Newsletter in 1972. Padgett also worked in poet-in-the-school programs nationally from 1969 to 1976. After directing The Poetry Project for two and a half years, he became the publications director ofTeachers & Writers Collaborative[12] (1980-2000), where he also editedThe Teachers & Writers Collaborative Newsletter.
Padgett was a cofounder, publisher, and editor of Full Court Press from 1973 to 1988, bringing out books by Ginsberg, Brainard, O'Hara, Edwin Denby, Tom Veitch, William S. Burroughs, Larry Fagin, Philippe Soupault, John Godfrey, and others. At the same time, he lectured and taught at educational institutions, includingAtlantic Center for the Arts, Brooklyn College, andColumbia University. He also hosted a poetry radio series and the designer of computer writing games. Padgett'spapers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Padgett is the author of more than twenty poetry collections, includingGreat Balls of Fire (1969, reissued 1990);You Never Know (2001);How to Be Perfect (2007);How Long (2011); andCollected Poems (2013). Seven of Padgett's poems are featured inJim Jarmusch's 2016 filmPaterson,[13] including three written expressly for the film. Like Padgett, Jarmusch studied poetry under Kenneth Koch at Columbia University.[14]
Padgett is also the author of nonfiction works, includingBlood Work: Selected Prose (1993),Ted: A Personal Memoir of Ted Berrigan (1993),Creative Reading (1997), andThe Straight Line: Writing on Poetry and Poets (2000),Oklahoma Tough: My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers (2003), andJoe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard (2004).[12] Padgett’s novellaMotor Maids across the Continent appeared in 2017 from Song Cave. His numerous works on education and writing includeThe Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms (editor),The Teachers & Writers Guide to Walt Whitman (editor), andEducating the Imagination (co-editor). He was also the editor of the three-volume reference work,World Poets (2000).[15]
His grants, fellowships. and awards include a Guggenheim (1986), a grant from theFoundation for Contemporary Arts (1996),[16] the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (2001), the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and theAcademy of American Poets (2016). His bookHow Long was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012[17] and hisCollected Poems won theL.A. Times Book Prize in 2013.[18] He was also the recipient of grants and awards for his translations, which include those given by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Columbia University’s Translation Center.[15]
Padgett and his wife, Patricia Padgett, who also grew up in Tulsa, have lived in the sameEast Village apartment since 1967.[14] They also have a rustic retreat inVermont where they spend their summers.[21] The couple's son Wayne was born in 1966.[21]
The Poet Assassinated byGuillaume Apollinaire (illustrated byJim Dine) Holt, Rinehart & Winston (New York, NY), 1968.
Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp by Pierre Cabanne, Viking (New York, NY), 1971.
Kodak byBlaise Cendrars, Adventures in Poetry (New York, NY), 1976.
The Poems of A. O. Barnabooth byValery Larbaud, Mushinsha Ltd. (Tokyo), 1977; revised edition Black Widow Books (Boston, MA), 2008, with Bill Zavatsky.
Complete Poems by Blaise Cendrars, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1992.
Complete Fiction bySerge Fauchereau, Black Square Editions, (New York, NY), 2002, with John Ashbery.
Prose Poems byPierre Reverdy, Black Square Editions (New York, NY), 2007.
Flash Cards byYu Jian, (Zephyr) 2010, with Wang Ping.
Zone: Selected Poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, NYRB Poets (New York, NY), 2015.
