Biography
Born: Chicago, IL in 1944
Education:
B.A. in English, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1967
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, University of California at Irvine, 1970
PROSE:
Wild Dreams of Reality: - a novel, 2001, Creative Arts. About this book Richard Ford said: “The almost, but not quite innocent directness of Ratch’s savvy little novel is irresistible to me. I read it in a sitting. I’m glad real writers still want to write books this way.”
Oakley Hall wrote: “Jerry Ratch’s novel of low jinks in Berkeley goes off like a packet of Chinese firecrackers, and never stops popping.”
POETRY BOOKS:
Puppet X (Shameless Hussy Press, 1973, 1976)
Clown Birth (Shameless Hussy Press, 1975)
The Suburban Poem (Nemesis Press, 1975)
Osiris (Cloud Marauder Press, 1977)
Chaucer Marginalia (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1979)
Rose (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1979)
Hot Weather: Selected Poems (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen NJ. 1982)
Chairman (Sombre Reptiles Press, 1982)
Helen (Cloud Marauder Press, 1984)
Lenin’s Paintings (Illuminati Press, 1987)
Light (O Books, 1988)
Homeowner Haiku, (Frog, 2005)
The Six Second Rule, new poems (Any Puppet Press, 2012)
ANTHOLOGY PUBLICATIONS:
Practising Angels, 1985
Dreams Are Wiser Than Men, 1986
O One/ An Anthology, 1988
How the Net Is Gripped, Contemporary American Poetry, 1992
The Age of Koestler, 1994
Work in the following publications:
San Francisco Chronicle
Carolina Quarterly
Louisville Review
Negative Capability
Antioch Review
COE Review
Ironwood
Avec
Contact II
Mirage
Sonoma Mandala
The Galley Sail Review
Slant
Nycticorax
The Berkeley Poetry Review
Peregrine
Ormfaer
Seems
Beatitude
Hiram Poetry Review
Brick and Mortar Review
Colorado State Review
Milvia Street Literary Journal
Apple Valley Review
Maryland Literary Review
Public-republic.net
and others...