Garrett Caples is an American poet. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...

 in 1972, he currently lives in Oakland. An editor at City Lights Books, Caples curates the new American poetry series, City Lights Spotlight. He also writes on hip hop, literature, and painting for the San Francisco Bay Guardian

San Francisco Bay Guardian

The San Francisco Bay Guardian is a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper is owned mostly by its publisher, Bruce B...

, and has written fiction on unusual sexual practices, like omorashi

Omorashi

is a fetish subculture recognized predominantly in Japan, in which participants experience arousal from having a full bladder or a sexual attraction to someone else experiencing the feeling of a full urinary bladder. Outside of Japan, it is not usually identified separately from urolagnia , though...

.

As a hip hop journalist, Caples has been the first write on various Bay Area rappers, including J Stalin

J Stalin

Jovan Smith, better known by his stage name J. Stalin , is a rapper from the Cypress Village housing projects in West Oakland. In 2007, he signed to Zoo Entertainment Production Company run by artist Mekanix, who described his style as a variant of Hyphy known as "Go"...

, D-Lo, Eddi Projex, Traxamillion

Traxamillion

Traxamillion is a hip hop producer from San Jose, California.He has become one of the most watched producers in the industry with hits such as Keak da Sneak's "Super Hyphy" and Dem Hoodstarz "Grown Man Remix". His first album, The Slapp Addict, was a compilation of Bay Area hyphy artists. The Slapp...

, and Shady Nate. He's also written cover stories on more established stars like E-40

E-40

Earl Stevens , better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor from Vallejo, California. He is also part of the rap group The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. His solo debut album, Federal, was released in November 1992, after The Click's debut...

, Mac Dre

Mac Dre

Andre Hicks , better known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper.-Biography:Andre Hicks was born in Oakland, California but moved to Vallejo while still a child...

, Mistah FAB, Husalah (Mob Figaz

Mob Figaz

Mob Figaz is a hip hop group from the Bay Area, California, that was formed by C-Bo. The original members include The Jacka, Husalah, Rydah J. Klyde and Fed-X from Pittsburg, California, and AP.9, from Oakland....

), and The Jacka

The Jacka

Dominic Newton, better known by his stage name The Jacka , is an American rapper from Richmond, California. The Jacka got his start in Pittsburg, California with his group, Mob Figaz, whose first album, C-Bo's Mob Figaz, was released in 1999. The Jacka also converted to Islam at a very young age...

 (Mob Figaz

Mob Figaz

Mob Figaz is a hip hop group from the Bay Area, California, that was formed by C-Bo. The original members include The Jacka, Husalah, Rydah J. Klyde and Fed-X from Pittsburg, California, and AP.9, from Oakland....

). Significantly, his interview with Shock-G of Digital Underground

Digital Underground

Digital Underground was an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. It could have been considered a music "family" rather than a group, as its personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour....

 announced the end of that classic hip hop crew.

Caples is the author of The Garrett Caples Reader (Angle Press/Black Square Editions, 1999), er, um (Meritage Press, 2002), The Philistine's Guide to Hip Hop (Ninevolt, 2004), and Complications (Meritage Press, 2007). In 2006, Narrow house Recordings released a cd of Caples reading his poems with lo-fi musical accompaniment called Surrealism's Bad Rap. He is also the editor of Pocket Poets Number 59, Tau by Philip Lamantia

Philip Lamantia

Philip Lamantia was an American poet and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems were ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic which explored the subconscious world of dreams and linked it to the experience of daily life.-Biography:...

 & Journey to the End by John Hoffman

John Hoffman

John Hoffman can refer to:*John Hoffman , American football defensive end*John Hoffman , American welterweight boxer, coach, trainer, and promoter...

 (City Lights, 2008). His pamphlet, Quintessence of the Minor: Symbolist Poetry in English, was published by Wave Books

Wave Books

Wave Books is an independent poetry press based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 2005, joining forces with Western Massachusetts-based poetry publisher Verse Press , and has published over fifty books, including works by Joshua Beckman, Dara Wier, Matthew Rohrer, Eileen Myles, Tyehimba...

 in 2010. With Nancy Peters

Nancy Peters

Nancy Joyce Peters is an American publisher, writer, and co-owner with Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books and Publishers in San Francisco....

 and Andrew Joron

Andrew Joron

Andrew Joron is an American writer of experimental poetry. He began by writing science fiction poetry. Joron's later poetry, combining scientific and philosophical ideas with the sonic properties of language, has been compared to the work of the Russian Futurist Velimir Khlebnikov...

, he is editing The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia

Philip Lamantia

Philip Lamantia was an American poet and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems were ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic which explored the subconscious world of dreams and linked it to the experience of daily life.-Biography:...

for the University of California Press (forthcoming, 2012).