About

Wil Gibson currently lives in Humboldt County, California where the trees are big and he currently serves as Eureka, California’s Poet Laureate. He has had 5 collections published by kind people, and has been included in a number of anthologies and lit mags both online and in print, such as Marsh Hawk Review, Button Poetry, Midwestern Gothic, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Cascadia Rising, Collective Unrest, Yellow Chair Review and many more. He has twice been nominated for both a Pushcart and Best of the Net, is a community board member of Word Humboldt, co-owns ReWorded (a poetry only bookstore) with his patient partner, Susanna, and is editor-in-chief of Swimming With Elephants Publications.

You can find links to books and more info at wilgibson.com

Long bio

Wil Gibson was born from a good idea and a bottle of bourbon and raised in some of the poorest communities northern Illinois and eastern Arkansas have to offer.

He has had collections published with Moon Pie Press (Home and Other Places-2012), Sargent Press (A Couple’s Guide To Panic Attacks w/ Jen Jacques-2013), Great Weather for MEDIA (Harvest the Dirt-2015), Swimming With Elephants Press (Quitting smoking, falling in and out of love, and other thoughts about death-2016 and  Unease at Rest-2019), He has been published online and/or in print with Midwestern Gothic, Button Poetry, Radius, Opus, minor literature(s), Yellow Chair Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Marsh Hawk Review, Electric Cereal, Cascadia Rising, Collective Unrest, and many more, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2015 and again in 2018. He is currently the Poet Laureate of Eureka, California, and editor-in-chief of Swimming With Elephants Publications.

He has performed with or opened for Regie Gibson (no relation), Charlie Neville, Andrea Gibson (no relation), mybrightestdiamond, Brother Ali, Toki Wright, Patricia Smith, and Kurtis Blow (among others), and has been the featured poet in hundreds of dive bars, high schools, colleges, poetry slams, libraries, living rooms, restaurants, prisons, coffee houses, and churches from Bellingham, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts and beyond.

He was runner up at the 2010 and 2011 Arkansas Grand Slam, audience favorite 2010 Arkansas Grand Slam, three time (2008-2010) Portland, Maine/Port Veritas Grand Slam Champion, one time (2010) New Hampshire/Slam Free or Die Grand Slam Champion, one time (2015) Humboldt County Grand Slam Champion, has won the chance to represent Portland, Maine 6 times (2008-2012, 2014) and Humboldt County, California once (2015) at the National Poetry Slam, including the 2011 PV semifinal team, and has coached 4 of those NPS teams as well.

His mentors have included Jason Carney, Ryk McIntyre, Mike Macklin, Nick Fox, Billy Tuggle and Jay Davis, but you shouldn’t hold that against him.

He has toured nationally solo, and as part of:
Uncomfortable Laughter (w/ Beau Williams, Kait Rokowski, and Ryan McLellan), guyslikeyou (w/ Beau Williams and Ryan McLellan), Griot and Troubadour (w/ Billy Tuggle), Work to be Done (w/ Brennan DeFrisco), is an honorary member of Chicago 4 Star Poetry (w/ Billy Tuggle, Andi Kauth, Rik Vazquez, Melanie “George” Decelles, Ashley Hart, and Patricia Smith), was a founding member of the nonprofit organization Port Veritas in Portland, Maine, host and community board member at Word Humboldt, and curator of the Redwood Poetry Slam.

He likes people and loves dogs. He would like to pet your dog, if possible, and maybe talk to you a few minutes about lighthouses or random historical facts.