Catfish McDaris

Biography

McDaris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1953.

After 3 years serving in the military as a young man, he hopped freights and hitchhiked across the U.S. and Mexico. He built adobe houses, tamed wild horses, made cattle troughs, worked in a zinc smelter, and painted flag poles.

For a time, he lived in a cave and wintered in a Chevy in Denver.

He eventually settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he worked for the United States Postal Service.

In 1994, he organized a charity event of poetry and music in Milwaukee, called Wordstock. During the same year, he also read at The First Underground Press Conference at De Paul University in Chicago.

In 1998, he read at a Beatnik festival held near Allen Ginsberg's farm,

In 2007, he read at Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore in Paris.

Reception and influence

McDaris has published extensively in the small press and independent magazines. He is also often associated with Allen Ginsberg and collaborated with Charles Bukowski on a chapbook called 'Prying'. In addition, his work has appeared in such publications as The Penny Dreadful Review, Chiron Review, the Shepherd Express and Blink-Ink Marquette University holds his collected published works and personal papers in their special collections archives.

Awards and nominations

Publications