Ted Pearson


Ted Pearson is an American poet. He is often associated with the Language poets.

Life and work

Pearson was born in 1948 in Palo Alto, California. He began studying liturgical music in 1960, instrumental music in 1962, and began writing poetry in 1964 after Paul Desmond gave him a copy of Robert Creeley’s For Love. He subsequently attended VanderCook College of Music, Foothill College, and San Francisco State University.
In 1977, Pearson began his long association with the poets who were then actively involved in creating Language poetry, a new school of innovative writing that emerged in San Francisco, New York, and other places during this period. Among these poets were Rae Armantrout, Steve Benson, Alan Bernheimer, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Ron Silliman, and Barrett Watten.
In 1988, Pearson left the Bay Area, and has since lived in Ithaca, Buffalo, Detroit, and the Inland Empire. He now lives in Oakland, California.

Selected publications