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 Alan Botsford, author of Walt Whitman of Cosmic Folklore (Sage Hill Press, 2010), is, according to The Japan Times, "...a wizard with language and turns rhyme on its head. Like the Dadaists his title borrows and departs from, [Botsford] throws out convention to create a new art…. it's a revitalization of old forms… he breathes new life into words by the sheer brilliance of his constructions.” Of his poetry collection mamaist,  Kyoto Journal has written: mamaist…may be one of the first books of poems to transpire from our global civilization.…a joyful romp in language .…[It] will astonish anyone whose mind is alert to the spiritual dimensions of the language of Being… a major achievement….  these poems...  perceived as an emerging global awareness, one that recognizes all life on this planet as radically interconnected and interdependent. ...an important beginning for an important writer. The distinctive quality of voice and the content possesses a moral tone that revels in the birth of words and meaning.”

 

Botsford, born in Connecticut, raised in the Washington, D.C. area, holds degrees from Wesleyan University and Columbia University. He is Associate Professor at Kanto Gakuin University in Japan and edits Poetry Kanto, a bilingual journal of the interplay of voices East, West and beyond. His two previous poetry collections are A Book of Shadows (Katydid Books, 2003) and mamaist: learning a new language (Minato No Hito, 2002).