William James Austin (1950 - ) is a New York City insipired poet who has authored five collections of poetry, essays, and "photopo": 1 UNDERWORLD 2 and 3 UNDERWORLD 4 (S Press); 5 UNDERWORLD 6, 7 UNDERWORLD 8: TRANSTEXTUAL and 9 UNDERWORLD 0: DESOLATION PARADISE (Koja Press); plus the book length monograph, A DECONSTRUCTION OF T. S. ELIOT: THE FIRE AND THE ROSE (Salzburg University Studies).

William James Austin's poetry, fiction, theoretical essays, book reviews, letters and visual art have appeared or been exhibited in The Paterson Literary Review, The American Book Review, Blaze, Louisiana Literature, The New Laurel Review, Xavier Review, Koja, Black October, The Small Press Review, BluR -- the Boston Literary Review, Masthead, The World Healing Book (a 9/11 anthology from Iceland), Fell Swoop, Appearances, A Shout in the Street (as Allen Ginsberg's B-side), The Tulane Literary Review, The Chronicle of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Scrambled Eggs, Timbuktu, Contemporary Jewish-American Dramatists and Poets (Greenwood Press), Spidertangle: The Book, Gallerichickenscratch, American Poetry (by Igor Satanovsky), Magazinnik (in Russian translation), The Contemporary Review, xStream, Here and Now (Boston Public Radio), eratio, Moria, Turntable and Blue Light, The Instanbul Literary Review, Caiete Internationale de Poezie (in Romanian translation), Origini (sponsored by the International Association of Romanian Writers and Artists, Inc.), The June 30th Manifesto (ed. John M. Bennett and Scott Helms, Luna Bisconte Productions), Black Zinnias (forthcoming -- sponsored by the California Institute of Arts and Letters), The Best of Generator Press (CD Rom), Le Cirque: The Soundtrack (CD), Fiera Lingue (the Italian journal of science and culture), the Durban Segnini Gallery (Miami), Gallery 324 (Cleveland), Tacheles (Berlin), the Fort Worth Art Center, and other venues. In Manhattan he has performed at the Poetry Project, Ear Inn, the Knitting Factory, the Bowery Club, KGB, and similar venues. In addition, and often in conjunction with the eclectic concert event, Cirque du Singe Brisé, he performs in cities and at universities throughout the USA northeast.

Austin's poetry has won a number of awards, including an AWP award, two nominations for the Pushcart Prize by Richard Kostelanetz and BLuR: The Boston Literary Review, a Here and Now (Boston Public Radio) award, and second place in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award competition. In 2001 he performed at the Ohio State University Avant-Garde Symposium. A Russian translation of his long poem, "aeneas in hell," was the subject of a session at the Stevens Institute of Technology Biennial Translation Conference in 2002. He has been filmed and/or interviewed for PBS, NTV, Boston/Cambridge local television, the Cervena Barva Press interview series, and for the Romanian journal, Caiete Internationale de Poezie. In addition, his poetry and poetics are featured on a series of postcards issued by Cervena Barva Press, and are the subject of several articles by two celebrated Romanian artists, scholars, critics and translators: Stefan Stoenescu and Mirela Roznoveanu. Professor Stoenescu is currently translating UNDERWOR(L)D: Selected Writings for book publication in Romania.

Along with Igor Satanovsky, Mike Magazinnik, Julia Solis, Bill Keith, Richard Kostelanetz, and a growing list of experimental Russian language writers, William James Austinf publishes with Koja Press which has been featured in a New York Times article, on BBC news, and on NTV.

William James Austin has composed music and lyrics for Lou Rawls, the fusion group: Hammer, a television sitcom, and other rock and jazz artists.

William James Austin received his Ph.D. on Fellowship from Tulane University in New Orleans, and is currently Associate Professor of English and Philosophy and the Artistic Director of the Visiting Writers Program at the State University of New York, Farmingdale.

Alex Borestein and Jennifer Bergamony, eds. Blazevox 2K6. 19 June 2009 <http://www.blazevox.org/062-wja.pdf>.

Austin, William James. "On Mirela Roznoveanu's Poetry." Origini VIII.11-12 (2004). —. William James Austin. 19 June 2009 <http://www.williamjamesaustin.com/>.

Austin, William James, ed. Blackbox. 2003. 19 June 2009 <http://www.williamjamesaustin.com/blackbox.html>.

Open Library. 2 September 2008. 19 June 2009 <http://openlibrary.org/a/OL405282A/William-James-Austin>.

Poets & Writers. 2009 19 June <http://www.pw.org/content/william_james_austin>. Spidertangle. 19 June 2009 <http://www.spidertangle.net/the_book/austin.html>.