Louis Cuneo - Founder
Louis Cuneo was born in New York City and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his early twenties. His literary career spans over 40 years, beginning in Greenwich Village where he honed his skills as a poet and continuing to the Bay Area where he has worked as a poet, photographer, editor/publisher, coordinator, teacher, playwright, producer, Haiku expert and grants recipient.
Cuneo founded Mother's Hen in 1971 and is founder and coordinator of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, Muchos Somos Series and the Touch of a Poet Series.
As a well known haiku poet, he helped establish the unique form of American Haiku. Currently he has turned his attention to haiga, the visual aspect of haiku. He now spends most of his free time capturing the intimate moments of Berkeley and Northern California in his photographs.
Cuneo has had ten of his books published which include: Haiku Revisited (Celestial Arts, 1975); Godzilla Attacks A Truck (Lean Frog, 1981); Passing Moments (Mother's Hen, 1991): and Splash (Malthus Press, 1999). His poetry, haiku and articles have appeared in Gypsy Table, Peace & Pieces Anthology, American Pen, Love Lights, Word Hustlers, Bachy, California Poets, New World Haiku, Lean Frog, Poetry Flash, Berkeley Monthly, Artery, 100% Pure Rag, Aldebaran Review, Dragonfly, Free Poems for the People, Suttertown News and more.
Cuneo's collection of personal and literary writings, events, & publications, along with his magazines & anthology credits, is on view at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. Contact Ms. Bonnie L. Bearden at (510) 642-8171, (510) 540-5579 (FAX) or bberden@library.berkeley.edu.There are also samples of the following at the Bancroft Library: books by Louis Cuneo; videos of the weekly poetry series, Touch of A Poet; books published by Mother's Hen; articles from special events; instructional books and drama.
Marcia Poole - Graphics
Marcia Poole joined Mother's Hen in 1994. She took over the graphics side of the organization and provided posters , web design,covers & layouts for books and newspaper ads. She created the Open Mic Directory and continues today, working through Lean Frog Graphics
Poole also helped established the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She wrote grants and proposals for funding, produced the programs and ads and worked on the day to day coordination of the events.
Dale Jensen - Coordinator
Dale Jensen was born in Oakland, California, and grew up there. Heavily influenced by the Surrealist movement, he is known internationally as an exponent of the cut-up technique. He edited the poetry magazine Malthus from 1985 through 1989.
He has published seven books of poetry through his publishing company, Malthus Press; the latest three of which are Purgatorial (2004), Cyclone Fence (2007), and Oedipus’ First Lover (2009).
His poetry has been published in many magazines and journals including Lost and Found Times, Talisman, Convolvulus, Dirigible, The Walrus, Ur-Vox, Poetry East, and many others. He has co-coordinated poetry readings since 1989, and is currently involved in the Last Word Reading Series at Caffe Nefeli in Berkeley.
Randy Fingland - Coordinator
Randy Fingland has co-ordinate poetry reading series since 1969. He has had close to 2000 poems published in magazines, journals, anthologies, broadsides, and programs. He is the author of ten books of poetry, the latest of which is Metamorphosis Blues (Beatitude Press, 2007).
Fingland is also the driving force behind CC Marimbo Communications, a small press specializing in a vast range of poetry. He is a performing poet of note in the Bay Area.
LA Wood - Videos & TV
LA Wood is a true Renaissance man and a
Bodhisattva. He dedicates his life to making everything better for everyone and everything and this is very visible in his site Berkeley Citizen. LA joined the Mother's Hen collective in the mid- 1990s when he started filming the poets reading at the Touch of A Poet Series and continued filming and advising us with the Berkeley Poetry Festival and other ventures.
