Ron Androla

scene.

Life

Androla was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania to a family of mixed Syrian and Italian ancestry. In the early 1970s, Androla attended Point Park College and later Franconia College, where he studied under Robert Grenier and came under the influence of Language poets whom he emulated at the time. However, he regards himself as part of a tradition of underground American poetry that has largely rejected academic context. He considers his entry into the labor force as the true inception of his poetic vocation. For over thirty years, he worked in a factory as a pressure press operator. The faces and personas of coworkers often feature in his poetry, which sketches the minutiae of working-class existence in the United States in a spontaneous and sparse style.

He currently resides in Erie, Pennsylvania with his wife, Ann, who is also a writer.

Works

He cites the work of the Black Mountain poets as an early source of inspiration, and his work continues to show a strong influence of the Projective Verse style. His work also demonstrates the considerable influence of Charles Bukowski, especially in its disaffection and in its use of the short line, paratactical structures, colloquial enjambments and stream of consciousness technique. Like Jack Kerouac and other Beat poets, Androla prefers spontaneity and directness of experience over revisions and polish. His poetry often explores an oneiric mental landscape which underlies everyday experience, with recurrent themes of paranoia, alienation and ecstasy; its tone is most often curious and subtly bemused.

Bibliography

"What To Say To Death" (2008). GOSS183.
"A PRESSURE PRESS COLLECTION", editor (2007). Pressure Press Press.
"Poet Head:" Selected Poems 2001-2005 (2005). Rank Stranger Press.
"you know how it goes" (2004). fingerprintpress.
"BONGO MOON" (1998), rerelease (2004). Audio CD produced & directed by Kurt Nimmo.

External links

* [http://enhancedphotos.com/cgibin/board/view.cgi Ron Androla's Pressure Press] , an online forum where Androla posts many of his poems
* [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/miPOradio.html The Secret Life of Ron Androla, an interview with Birdie Jaworski] and links to several other audio recordings of Androla reading his poetry
* [http://www.the-hold.com/ronandrola/ Official page]
* [http://www.mipoesias.com/2004/jackandrola.htm Underground Aboveground: A Review of Ron Androla's poetry] , by Jack Hughes
* [http://www.saintvituspress.com/PAGE3.html Interview] with Todd Moore of St. Vitus Press
* [http://www.popcurrent.com/entries/ron_androla_-_volume_1-_poems_2005-2006] Androla audio selections from miporadio
* [http://pressurepresscollection.smallpresspoets.com/] A PRESSURE PRESS COLLECTTION, 2007
* [http://www.createspace.com/3354072] What To Say To Death, 2008