Reed Bye is a long-time resident of Boulder and has been described by Mr. If as “the only sane Buddhist I ever met in Boulder.” Reed’s most recent publications are Addled Smoke Material: Collaborative Poems with Jack Collom 1972-2017 (2018), Fire for Thought (BlazeVOX 2016) and What’s This (Lunamopolis 2016), Catching On (Monkey Puzzle 2013), a cd of original songs, Broke Even (Fast Speaking Music 2013), and Join the Planets: New and Selected Poems (United Artists 2005). He holds a doctorate in English Lit. from the University of Colorado and recently retired after many years on the core faculty of the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University, where he taught poetry writing workshops and courses in classic and contemporary literary studies and contemplative poetics. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies including Nice to See You: Homage to Ted Berrigan, Sleeping on the Wing, and Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action. A close associate of the Beat Poets, Reed holds the teaching lineage for Allen Ginsberg’s class on William Blake, which we hope to sponsor at BAFS in the future.

Mike Parker was born in the brass mill town of Waterbury Connecticut in 1944. D'Spare Press published three collections of his poetry: Don't Fall Off the Mountain, Wallflower Sutra, and Walking on Water in a Razorblade Breeze, and he has three live poetry CDs. He sang in the band Ballistic Kisses, recording two albums on Beggars Banquet Records, Total Access and Wet Moments. He served two terms of Artist in Residence for the Ward Public Library and was the recipient of the Neodata Literary Fellowship from the Boulder County Arts Alliance. He lives with his wife the poet Mary Johnston Parker and daughter Frannie in the town of Ward Colorado on the edge of the Indian Peaks Wilderness.