Diane Rose di Prima (1934-2020), America’s most influential female poet of the past three-quarter-century, lived, wrote, taught, and worked in San Francisco from 1968 until her passing in 2020. She was the author of approximately 50 books of poetry, drama, and prose.
Diane di Prima was named Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2009 and retained that honor for two more years. She was the beating heart of the male-dominated Beat Poetry Movement in the 1950s and ‘60s and was its feminist voice. Her immortal work, including Revolutionary Letters and Loba, grew far beyond the Beat Movement, as she continued to write until the week of her death in October 2020.