Gavin Geoffrey Dillard is an American poet and songwriter. He is the author of seven books of homoerotic poetry

Homoerotic poetry

Homoerotic poetry is a genre of poetry of the male-male erotic tradition that contains poems by major poets such as Abu Nuwas, Walt Whitman, Federico García Lorca, W. H. Auden, Fernando Pessoa and Allen Ginsberg....

, two anthologies of poetry, and several popular songs. He wrote many of the lyrics for Bark! The Musical

Bark! The Musical

Bark! The Musical is a musical with music by David Troy Francis and lyrics by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard and Robert Schrock .-Synopsis:...

.

Early life

Dillard was born in Asheville, North Carolina, on November 28, 1954. He was in the high school program at the North Carolina School of the Arts

North Carolina School of the Arts

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...

 and also attended California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

. His first chapbook of poetry, Twenty Nineteen Poems, was published by Ian Young's Catalyst Press when Dillard was 20 years old.

Hollywood Years

During the late 1970s, Dillard lived in Hollywood, California, and his experiences there figured heavily in his autobiography, In the Flesh: Undressing for Success, published in 1997 by Barricade Books

Barricade Books

Barricade Books is a New York, NY publishing house specializing in non-fiction books. Among its most famous publications is The Last Party, the memoir of Adele Morales about her marriage to author-playwright Norman Mailer....

. Dillard's portraits have been drawn by Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland

Touko Laaksonen, best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland was a Finnish artist notable for his stylized androerotic and fetish art and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W...

 and Don Bachardy

Don Bachardy

Donald Jess "Don" Bachardy is an American portrait artist. He resides in Santa Monica, California.- Life and work :Born in Los Angeles, California, Bachardy was the life partner of writer Christopher Isherwood, whom he met on Valentine's Day 1953, when he was 18 and Isherwood was 48. They...

. Photos of Dillard have appeared in Playgirl

Playgirl

Playgirl is a print quarterly adult magazine published in the United States that is marketed mainly to heterosexual women, but has also gained a considerable gay following...

 and many gay publications.

Songwriting

Dillard wrote many of the lyrics for Bark! The Musical

Bark! The Musical

Bark! The Musical is a musical with music by David Troy Francis and lyrics by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard and Robert Schrock .-Synopsis:...

. His songwriting work (as lyricist) also includes "The Rescue," recorded by Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Sam Harris may refer to:* Sam Harris , American playwright and theater producer* Sam Harris , American actor and recording artist* Sam Harris , American author and neuroscientist...

, and art songs set to music by composer Jake Heggie

Jake Heggie

Jake Heggie is an American composer and pianist.Jake Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking , The End of the Affair , At The Statue of Venus , To Hell and Back , and Moby-Dick , as well as the stage work For a Look or a Touch...

. Dillard wrote the lyrics for "OMFG!!! -- an iLove Story," which opened at the ODC Theater in San Francisco on July 8, 2011. The music was written by Christopher Winslow.