Born: 1926
Ohio connection: Birth
Cleveland
Poet, playwright, editor, and composer Russell Atkins was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Perry Kelly and Mamie Bell Atkins. Admired for his “brilliant, idiosyncratic poetry and wide-ranging intellect,” Atkins’ writings challenged conventions of both form and content in poetry, drama, and literary theory. A leading innovator in experimental arts from the 1940s through 1970s. His poems were among the precursors of the concrete movement in American poetry. Much of Atkins’ work was published in The Free Lance, a Magazine of Poetry and Prose (1950-1980), a Cleveland-based small press literary journal devoted to avant-garde developments in writing. Founded by Atkins (with Caspar L. Jordan), in part as a forum for Atkins’ own ideas, The Free Lance also played a major part in the development of ideas and techniques of the new American poetry. Atkins served as editor and contributor, and its first edition included an introduction written by Langston Hughes, an early collaborator and supporter. The Free Lance gained national and worldwide readership. Printed in England, it was distributed in Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Sweden, and Australia.
Growing up in Cleveland, Atkins was reared by his mother and his aunt, Willie Mae Allen (whom he affectionately called “A’Mae”). Both women instilled in him a love of music and of the arts. Atkins attended Central High School where he enjoyed taking music classes and reading major classics in literature and philosophy. He created a style of concrete poetry in which visual presentation of words on the page predominates. At Central, he discovered the works of imagist poets Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore–contemporary poets whom he credits as being early influences. His books include Phenomena (1961), Objects (1963), Heretofore (1968), Maleficum (1971), Objects, 2: Poems (1973), and Here In The (1976).
Russell Atkins lives in Cleveland and has always been active in the local arts community. The influence of his poetic, dramatic, and musical innovation on that community has been compared to what John Coltrane was to jazz avant-gardism. Atkins donated portions of his writing and correspondence to the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center Archives Research Center.
Books
Awards/Honors
Honorary PhD. Cleveland State University (1976); Creative Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council, 1978; Lifetime Literary Achievement, Poetic League (1997); Cleveland Arts Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2017).
Additional Resources
Wikipedia: Russell Atkins
About verdant press: The Free Lance