Cool Auditor

In his tenth book, renowned prose poet Ray Gonzalez proclaims he is "at the crossroads in [his] throat where he looks both ways." Gonzalez is as quirky as ever, matching the didactic tone and jargon of a scientist with the sensibilities of artists like Kenneth Rexroth, Hart Crane, and Picasso, among others, who walk in and out of the poems. Cool Auditor embodies this unique blend of styles.

Fusing the real with the surreal and the natural world with human relationships, Ray Gonzalez creates his own brand of magical realism. He also brings pop humour in such poems as "The Guitars," which uses the word "guitar" in almost every sentence to talk about the true (and not so true) lives of rock stars. David Lazar notes, "Ray Gonzalez may be our most essential prose poet."

Ray Gonzalez's accolades include the 2003 Minnesota Literary Award for Poetry and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Book Award. He has published nine poetry collections and edited twelve anthologies, including No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets.