L. Eric Greinke

Eric Greinke, (b. 1948), began writing at an early age, earning several high school poetry awards while still in his teens. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard out of high school. After the service, he earned B.A. degrees in English and Psychology (1972, 1976), and an M.S.W. (1978) in Clinical Social Work at Grand Valley State University. He began publishing in nationally distributed small literary magazines in 1971. While in college, he was the founder and editor of AMARANTHUS, Grand Valley State University's national literary magazine. He attended poetry workshops with Ted Berrigan, Robert Bly, Jerome Rothenberg, Jackson MacLow, Phillip Whalen and many other major avant-garde poets. From 1971-1975, he was mentored by Donald Hall both in person and by correspondence. In 1971 and 1972, he read his poetry at the National Poetry Festival.

Greinke has edited over one hundred books by other poets under several literary imprints from 1970 to the present day. Since 1972, he has written over one hundred book reviews and critical essays on poetry, published in a variety of newspapers, magazines and online literary journals, such as THE DELAWARE POETRY REVIEW, THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS, HOME PLANET NEWS (NYC), THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE (www.thepedestalmagazine.com) and the SMALL PRESS REVIEW (Paradise, CA).

At the age of 24, Greinke published a translation/imitation of THE DRUNKEN BOAT AND OTHER POEMS FROM THE FRENCH OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD (Free Books, 1975, 1976; Presa Press, 2005, 2007 bi-lingual edition), receiving praise from Robert Bly and many others for its musicality and evocation of the spirit of Rimbaud. Over the years, he has added new pieces to each subsequent edition.

He is the author of ten poetry collections (SAND & OTHER POEMS, CAGED ANGELS, THE LAST BALLET, IRON ROSE, THE BROKEN LOCK: SELECTED POEMS 1960-1975, THE DRUNKEN BOAT AND OTHER POEMS FROM THE FRENCH OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD, SELECTED POEMS 1972 - 2005, WILD STRAWBERRIES, TRAVELING MUSIC and FOR THE LIVING DEAD - NEW & SELECTED POEMS), and THE ART OF NATURAL FISHING (creative non-fiction with elements of fiction and autobiography), WHOLE SELF/WHOLE WORLD - QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY (linked essays on death, love, materialism, technology, parenting, mental hygiene and universality), SEA DOG - A COAST GUARD MEMOIR (humorous military novel in first person naive, in the form of a memoir), THE POTENTIAL OF POETRY (essays on poetic craft and culture) and CONVERSATION PIECES (reprints of five interviews spanning a period from 1977-2009).

He has participated in the Michigan Artists-In-The-Schools program, teaching poetry in elementary schools, and has been Poet-in-Residence at both Ferris State University and Schoolcraft College. He taught poetry writing at Grand Rapids City High School for gifted and talented students from 1974-1976.

During the eighties and nineties, he stopped publishing his writing to devote himself full-time to social work with emotionally and developmentally disabled children and adolescents. As the Coordinator of the second ever Treatment Foster Care program, he was a pioneer in the movement, which provides an alternative to institutionalization for emotionally impaired children. He became active in the children’s rights movement and helped change Michigan’s laws on corporeal punishment of children in care. He also worked as a family and group therapist for developmentally disabled children from 1979 - 1994.

His return to poetry in 2005 was marked by the publication of his SELECTED POEMS 1972-2005. In the past ten years, Eric Greinke has addressed the issues of literary politics and poetic freedom through his essays and his poetry. He has been a champion of eclecticism, diversity and tolerance on the too often divided literary scene. His poetic style is wide ranging and has been influenced by French and Spanish surrealism, the deep image and New York schools. He has been an enthusiastic collaborator with other prominent poets such as Hugh Fox, Harry Smith, John Elsberg, Richard Kostelanetz, Glenna Luschei and Alison Stone.

In 2008, he was the Featured Poet in THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE, which included an interview and an audio recording of Greinke reading five poems. In 2010, a selection of his haiku were translated into Japanese by Bany’a Natsuishi, and published in the journal of the World Haiku Association. Eric Greinke’s poetry has received over one hundred-fifty unsolicited book reviews worldwide from literary journals and public newspapers, making him one of the most frequently reviewed living American poets.

Greinke’s work has appeared in over two hundred literary magazines, including: CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY, THE DELAWARE POETRY REVIEW, GINYU (Japan), THE GREEN DOOR (Belgium), HOME PLANET NEWS, THE JOURNAL (UK), MAIN STREET RAG, THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, MODERN HAIKU, THE NEW YORK QUARTERLY, PATERSON LITERARY REVIEW, POETRY NOW, PROSOPISIA (India), THE SMALL PRESS REVIEW, THE SOUTH CAROLINA REVIEW and THE UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA REVIEW. Greinke has a large international audience, with over 300,000 downloads of FOR THE LIVING DEAD - NEW & SELECTED POEMS in Brazil, Germany, China, Ukraine, Russia, Israel and the U.S., in that order. His work has been included in several anthologies, most notably FOR NERUDA/FOR CHILE - AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY, edited by Walter Lowenfels (Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1975) and he is one of twenty American poets in the new international anthology THE SECOND GENESIS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY WORLD POETRY (Ajmer, India, 2014).