Becoming A Poet In New York by Tony Towle
Kulvert Books
Published 20th May 2026
Tony Towle is one of the New York School’s best-kept secrets.
— John Ashbery
Tony Towle’s is one of the clear, authentic voices of American poetry.
— Kenneth Koch
Becoming a Poet in New York is a fascinating memoir from New York School poet Tony Towle. It covers the formative years of Towle’s career 1960-63 in prose recollections, when a hopeful budding young poet finds himself at the creative centre of New York’s exciting poetry and art scene. In humorous anecdotes we encounter the anxiety of balancing working, romantic and creative life whilst mixing with a cast of notable characters, witnessing ‘history’ as it unfolds through key figures for Towle’s poetic development, including Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank Lima, Ted Berrigan, artists Joe Brainard and a certain Andy Warhol.
Tony Towle was born in Manhattan in 1939, and has lived in Manhattan since 1961. Towle began writing poetry in 1960, “out of the blue.’’ Early on, he was drawn to the New York School poets through Donald Allen’s landmark anthology, The New American Poetry 1945-1960, and established an early association in 1963, when he took poetry workshops at the New School (now New School University) with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara. His debut chapbook was published by Tibor de Nagy Editions, in 1968, and his first major collection North, won the Frank O’Hara Award for 1970. He has collaborated with the poet Charles North, artists such as Joe Brainard, Lee Bontecou, Jean Holabird, and Dale Devereux Barker, and has had book-jacket designs created for him by Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, Robert Motherwell, and James Rosenquist. From 1964 to 1981, he was secretary and administrative assistant for Tatyana Grosman at her famed print studio, Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), which published original lithographs and intaglios by -- in addition to Bontecou, Johns, Rivers, Motherwell, and Rosenquist, mentioned above -- Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and Marisol. Towle’s awards and honours include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Frank O’Hara Foundation, and Poets Foundation.
Late Sketches & Studies, published by Kulvert in 2025, is Towle’s latest and fourteenth poetry publication.
MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books