top of page
Beside the False Island camp, Clear Cree
1988, August, in the Venetian Room at th
•2004, Summer, recording the album Poems
Don Paul Sets Course Record in Grueling

Biographical

Don Paul is the author of over 30 books and the leader or producer of 27 albums. His work is praised by Jeff Adachi, All About Jazz, John W. Aldridge, David Amram, Jeannette Armstrong, Victoria Ashley, BAM, Jason Berry, Ellen Brown, Amby Burfoot, Blacklist Mailorder, Burning Toddlers, Bobby Coleman, Marie Cordier, Corneta, Malcolm Cowley, Christian Duray, Factsheet Five, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Katrina Frey, Matt Gonzalez,  Jim Hoffman, JazzIz, Glenn Ito, Gayl  Jones, Chuck Kinder,  John Logan, David Meggyesy, Tillie Olsen, Option, David Pearlman (Poppa Neutrino), Eve Pell, Valentine Pierce, Paul Plimley, Derk Richardson, David Rubien, Kevin Ryan, Wanda Sabir, Brian Salter, John Sinclair, April Smith, Sound Choice, Tara Sufiana, John Unterecker, the URB,  Johnny Vidacovich, and Tom Zigal.

​

He's recorded with The GALLOP Trio (Alex de Grassi, Hamid Drake) and The Suspect Many and

Rivers of Dreams bands and with the individuals

Mario Abney, John Baker, Nick Benoit, Myles Boisen, India Cooke, George Cremaschi, Dhyani Dharma, Hamid Drake, Lisel Ellis, Steve Fundy, Richard Howell, Kenton Hulme, Kidd Jordan, Kirk Joseph, Henry Kaiser, Zack Knewstub, Morikeba Kouyaté, Babatunde Lea, Willie Lonewolf, Miya Masaoka, Rick G. Nelson, Donald Robinson, J.R. Routhier, Glenn Spearman, Michael Torregano Jr., Terbo Ted, Cole Williams, Tom Worrell, and the group Joi Joi (Louise Robinson, Michelle Jacques and Darlene Spears.

​

MarieJo and Don at Isabelle's feb 20-16

With Marie Jo Pous, founder of the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (FEPE) orphanage in Port-au-Prince, at the painter Isabelle Jacopin's. New Orleans, February 2015.

with Maryse on her 64th bday 9 22 2020.p

With Maryse Philippe Déjean, September 2020.

He's the youngest winner of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University, age 20 in 1971. He was previously a berry-picker and and cannery-worker. He was later a logger in the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska and then a roughneck and the Gulf of Mexico, off and on, from 1973 to 1980.
He qualified for the 1980 and 1988 U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trial and held the World Road Best for running 50 kilometers between 1982 and 1992. He began to work as an agent for distance-runners in 1984 and over the next 16 years  represented more than 100 international athletes through his agency Crossing Lines. He served on the Boards of the Association of Road-Racing Athletes (ARRA) and Athletes United for Peace in the latter 1980s. Stanford University, age 20 in 1971. He was previously a berry-picker and and cannery-worker. He was later a logger in the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska and then a roughneck and the Gulf of Mexico, off and on, from 1973 to 1980.

•1979 February, finishing the West Valle

West Valley Marathon, February 1979--the race that hooked me on distance-running.

Below are photos taken by novelist April Smith in 1971, 1972, and 2002. The final photo features our friend and fellow novelist Charles Alfonso Kinder, aka "Chuckie in the Sky with Diamonds", beloved by many as "Chuck."

April Smith photo in D P in Palo Alto Po

November 1971, the Post Office in downtown Palo Alto, California a setting chosen by April.

In 1988 I began to record poems with my brother, the excellent musician Kenton Hulme. Songs soon sprang out. The first was a lullaby
for my daughter Paloma, "A Baby's Smile Is Sweet To See." Then, recording-studios! That
was like being born into a second world. I led or produced 16 albums between 1989 and 1995. Dozens of superbly creative musicians were
my GREAT COMPANY. Recordings from then into now can be heard on my Bandcamp page.

WeCouldUseTheRain July 22 2020.png
Free Worlds on Amazon Jan. 6 2020.png

1989, with the Suspect

Many.

Free Worlds gathers tracks from four albums with

the "tree-mendous" Glenn Spearman.

From September 11, 2001 into 2009 I wrote about crimes of and from " '9/11' "
more than I wrote about anything else. Three books came out, plus another co-written with Jim Hoffman, plus a DVD produced with Jim and Celestine Star; plus participation in several Citizen Grand Juries; and more. crimes of and from " '9/11' "

January 2004, Yuri Kochiyama and Don Pau
Jim as 9:11 presenter.png

Jim Hoffman.

•1972_April_Smith_photo_of_Don_Paul,_L

In the 21st century I've co-founded Housing Is a Human Right (HIHR) in San Francisco and the New Orleans-based Rebuild Green and the Wesley United Digital Arts & Training Center. Maryse Philippe Déjean, his wife, now co-direct Sticking Up For Children in Haiti and New Orleans.

May 1972, the occasion a Party for our Creative Writing

class' "Coach", Dick Scowcroft. The bike is a1959 650

BSA that I'd bought with some of my Stegner Fellowship

money and Cannery earnings the prior Fall. Laura Kurtz

joined me from the Northwest in March. See 'Haikus

for a Spring of Walking Barefoot' and "LPs by Bare Feet'

in the book Animals Are Always Making Music for some of our time. I was very, very lucky to know Laura. Lucky,

too, to survive that BSA.

Don Paul and Chuck Kinder at Stanford, J

With Chuck in patio of the Oasis beer-joint and eatery, nearby Stanford, January 2002, before April, Chuck, and Scott Turow of our class and many more among Dick Scowcroft's admirers spoke in a Stanford-based tribute after his passing. Dick endured decades of Parkinson's and then the loss of his Anne with great Chuck was among the dearest of the dear to me and

he and Janet and then he and Diane (even more so) helped to increase my chances for staying alive in that decade of uncountable accidents and near-misses.

 

This page leads to Chuck's four novels and two books of poems and others' affection for him.

One more snapshot to bring "the class" of such camaraderie into the 21st century. We reunited in Pittsburgh at Chuck-and-Diane's on Squirrel Hill, June of 2010. Except for the graying, it was like kitchens 35 years-and-more earlier in the warmth and the chiste between us. With Chuck, April, Michael Rogers, Diane Cecily, Tom Zigal, and Scott. The exemplary writer Ed McClanahan--of another great group--may be the photographer here.

Pittsburgh #2 try, June 13, 2010. w. Chu

With Yuri Kochiyama among a panel for discussion of crimes of " ' '9/11'. Berkeley, California, January 2004. Photo by Shiu Hung.

John from Ashland, Malik, Sakura, Don, J

Another Sunday with "Common Ground" in New Orleans, April 2006. With John of Oregon, Malik Rahim, Sakura Koné, John of Ohio, and Tiffany Hickman.

2006 Ken McClane, Wanda Coleman, Tim Con

Ken McClane, Wanda Coleman, Tim Congden, and Amiri Baraka
after our reading for Common Ground at Tulane, October 2006.

TERBULDING GREEN JAIME HAZARD WIDE SHOT.

With Stanley Covington and O. C. Draughan and Rebuild Green
at our house of Structural Concrete Integrated Panels in the Upper 9th Ward, June of 2007. Photo by Jaime Hazard. This was B. C.--Before the Concrete! Rebuild Green

Home Builders' Institute volunteers work

With a crew of Home Builders Association apprentices VOLUNTEERING
to transfrom the once-abandoned Wesley United Methodist Church nto a Digital Arts and Training Center, New Orleans' Central City, March 2010.

Don Paul with Kirk Joseph at Louisiana M

With Kirk Joseph in a still from video by Louisiana Music Factory

of Rivers of Dreams' two hours at the LMF, November 2016.

​

%25E2%2580%25A2Kidd%252C%2520Don%252C%25

'Maybe You Saw Horses' with Kidd Jordan and Roger Lewis at the 'Honoring the Kidd' concert, November 1, 2019, the New Orleans

Jazz Museum.

bottom of page