Sharmagne Leland-St. John

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Sharmagne Leland-St. John (born May 23, 1946)^[1] is an American poet. Leland-St. John is best known for the poem "I Said Coffee," for which she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2007. She has received a total of 21 Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2013 International Book Award Honoring Excellence in Mainstream and Independent Publishing for best poetry anthology.^[2]

Her father, Jerome, was an animal trapper in the jungles of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. During her childhood, she collected exotic animals to supply zoos and private estates. She also had a pheasant farm and quail ranch in Mexico City and eventually settled in Tarzana, California.

When Leland-St. John was three years old; her father left the family, and then placed her and her older sister in a Catholic convent.

At some point her father and his wife became estranged, and in 1958 he came to the U.S. and brought his daughters to live with him and his new wife in Tarzana.

In the mid-1960s, she met Peter Yarrow from the folk singing group Peter, Paul and Mary and started dating the famous singer. Through the group's road manager, she was introduced to guitarist Peter Walker, with whom she began performing in concert and writing song lyrics. Under the name Peter and the Countess, they performed in venues such as The Fillmore East and West, The Psychedelic Super Market in Boston, The Ark in San Francisco, and The Ash Grove in Los Angeles. In addition to Peter and the Countess, Leland-St. John and Walker formed the band Orient Express, which included Bruce Langhorne and Lowell George. They also performed the music behind Timothy Leary's slide shows, "Celebrations".

In the late 1960s, while working for songwriter Jimmy Webb, Leland-St. John began writing poetry and song lyrics. She collaborated with Yarrow and Walker, as well as several other well-known composers, including Darby Slick, Jefferson Airplane, Hedge Capers, Hedge and Donna and Wes Farrell. At age 19, she co-wrote two episodes of the TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies." Leland-St. John was close friends with actress Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski. She lived with her boyfriend Jay Sebring, who, along with Tate, was murdered by members of the Manson Family in August 1969.

In the 1970s, Leland-St. John acted in TV commercials and appeared in features and on TV. She later returned to writing and published seven books of poetry and prose. With a journalist, she co-wrote the memoir her husband, Richard Sylbert, had begun but left unfinished at the time of his death, titled Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist (2006). She has also overseen the publication of the online journal Quill and Parchment for the past 22 years.^[3]

In 2001, Leland-St. John designed her first film Tricks.^[4] She co-directed and co-produced the short film Being with Eddie^[5] in 2003. Her short film screenplay, Butterfly Catcher, was filmed by the Native American Film and TV Alliance (NAFATA) in 2004.

Leland-St. John is the widow of Richard Sylbert.^[6] They had two children: a boy, Nikolai, who lived for only a few hours (her poem "Tiny Warrior" was written about him), and a daughter, Daisy Alexandra.^[7] She now splits time between Pasadena, California, her private fly-fishing lodge in Washington, an adobe in Taos, New Mexico, and a villetta in Florence, Italy.^[3]

• Unsung Songs (2003) ISBN 978-0-9764244-0-6 Quill and Parchment Press
• Silver Tears and Time (2006) ISBN 978-0-9764244-1-3 Quill and Parchment Press
• Contingencies (2008) ISBN 978-0-9764244-2-0 Quill and Parchment Press USA/WynterBlue Publishing Inc Canada
• Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist (2006)– Greenwood/Praeger ISBN 978-0-275-98690-2
• La Kalima (2010) ISBN 978-0-9764244-3-7 Quill and Parchment Press USA/WynterBlue Publishing Inc., Canada
• Empty Shoes: Poems on the Hungry and the Homeless ~ Editor Patrick T. Randolph ISBN 978-1-4495-1779-3 Popcorn Press (Oct. 2009)
• Many Mountains Moving – ISBN 978-1-886976-23-8
• Literary House Review ~ (Fall 2008)
• Emerging Urban Poets (June 2008)
• The League of Labouring Poets ISSN 1937-6499 (Best of Issue Award)
• Villanelles (March 2012); edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali; ISBN 978-0-307-95786-3; Everyman's Library/Random House UK
• Cradle Songs (April 2012) Editor: ISBN 978-0-9764244-5-1. Quill and Parchment Press
• Taj Mahal Review, edited by Dr. Santosh Kumar ISSN 0972-6004 Publisher: Cyberwit.net Webpage: tajmahalreview.com
• "Charles Manson: The Final Words" (2017)
• "Beverly Hills: 100 Years, 100 Stories" (2017)
• A Raga for George Harrison (October 2020) ISBN 978-93-88125-90-1 Taj Mahal Press/Cyberwit.net
• IMAGES: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poetry ISBN 978-93-88319-55-3 Publisher: Cyberwit.net
• The Trip: A richly Illustrated children's book ISBN 978-93-90202-97-3 Publisher: Cyberwit.net

• Sharmagne Leland-St. John at IMDb
• Sharmagne at Interviewing Hollywood
• Quill & Parchment Poetry Site
• River Run International Film Festival
• "International Book Awards - Honoring Excellence in Independent & Mainstream Publishing". 2013-05-03. Archived from the original on 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2022-12-21.