Papers of Kathleen Fraser, American poet, teacher and scholar. Influenced by the experimental poets of the New York School in the 1960s, Fraser became a prolific poet, an advocate of innovative women's writing, and a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University. The collection contains correspondence with prominent poets and scholars; manuscript and typescript drafts of Fraser's published and unpublished poetry, prose and essays; administrative and production materials related to the literary magazine HOW(EVER); interviews with Fraser; teaching materials; and video and audiocassette recordings. Significant correspondents include Charles Bernstein, Ted Berrigan, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Robert Creeley, Beverly Dahlen, Patricia Dienstfrey, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Barbara Einzig, Kenward Elmslie, Susan Gervitz, Robert Gluck, Barbara Guest, Fanny Howe, Susan Howe, Frances Jaffer, Carol Muske, Adrienne Rich, Ron Silliman, and Diane Wakoski. The papers range from the late 1950s to 2000, but most materials date from the 1970s through the 1990s. Additions to the Kathleen Fraser papers, processed in 2007, contain further correspondence with poets and scholars through 2006. The collection also incorporates materials related to the HOW2 ONLINE JOURNAL MATERIALS and archive project, including typescripts and editorial correspondence, works published by Fraser from 2000-2004, teaching and conference materials, interviews, miscellaneous materials, and two audio recordings.

Kathleen Fraser was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1935 and attended high school in Covina, California. After discovering the work of writers such as Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman and e.e. cummings while a student at Occidental College, Fraser decided to major in English literature and began to write her own poetry. She graduated in 1959 and moved to New York City where she developed her skills as a poet in workshops with Kenneth Koch and Robert Lowell at the New School for Social Research and with Stanley Kunitz at the Poetry Center at the YMHA.

24.50 linear feet (67 archives boxes, 3 card file boxes, and 1 oversize folder)

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.