Bill Mayer was born and raised in Los Angeles. He received his BA and MA from San Francisco State University, studying with Jack Gilbert, Stan Rice, William Dickey and Nanos Valaoritis. In the late ‘60s, he was invited to join a poetry workshop with Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Larry Felson, George Stanley, Bill Anderson, Wilbur Wood, and others. The workshop persists to this day with some of its original participants.
Mayer has published 6 books of poetry: Longing, (Pangaea, 1992), The Uncertainty Principle (Omnidawn, 2001), The Deleted Family (Paroikia, 2004), Articulate Matter (Paroikia, 2012), A Truce With Fantasy (Aldrich Press, Kelsay Books, 2015), and now Free Falling.
Poems have also appeared in a number of magazines: Caterpillar, Ironwood, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Montana Gothic, Five Fingers Review, Red Rock Review, Paris Atlantic Poetry Flash, Alimentum, Danse Macabre, and Visions International, among others. He was included in an anthology of American poets who have lived in Greece, Kindled Terraces, edited by Donald Schofield.
Mayer has traveled widely, having spent extended time in Vermont, England, Greece, Hawaii, Monterey, Germany, France, Italy, and Austria. He is also a professional photographer (working with Tony Keppelman on Hummingbirds, a photographic essay published by Little-Brown) and an importer of German and Austrian wines. He lives with his wife, Jane McKinne-Mayer, who teaches art history at the California College of the Arts, in Oakland, California.
Paperback: 101 pagesPublisher: Kelsay Books (April 2, 2019)