Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. As a young man, he worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Michael Moore, was widely published in the alternative press, and also worked as a cartoonist. He attended the University of Michigan at Flint and Ann Arbor, during which time he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, an honor shared with fellow writers Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, Frank O'Hara, Arthur Miller, John Ciardi, and Mary Gaitskill, among others. He holds an MFA from Murray State University, teaches composition, and works as a Poet-In-Residence in the Chicago Public Schools through the Poetry Center of Chicago's Hands on Stanzas program. He was a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for teaching excellence in 2004.
In addition to writing, he is a singer and songwriter, working both solo as well as with several 'hard pop' bands. He has released numerous critically-acclaimed CD's, including Throw the Lions to the Christians (1997) and Sir Slob (2001); Public Displays of Affection (1998) and Fables in Slang (2001), with Post Office; Gentrification Is Theft (2002), with The Me Decade; and Fun with a Purpose (2009), with The Injured Parties. Since 2001 he has hosted a monthly songwriter showcase, Folk You!
He is author of books, Rate of Exchange & Other Poems (1988); Barking Up the Wrong Tree (1989); QWERTYUIOP (1989); Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat (1990); Workers' Comp. (1995); Identity Theft for Dummies (2003); and I Am Spam (2004), a series of poems 'inspired' by spam email. He recently completed a new manuscript, Brief Nudity, as well as a 'best of' collection including poems from out-of-print works. Selected magazine publications include The Berkeley Poetry Review, Gryphon, Passages North, Third Lung Review, The Altered Mind, Lilliput Review, Amaranth Review, Kumquat Meringue, California Quarterly, The Monona Review, Whoreson Dog, Pacific Coast Journal, Tomorrow, Poetry at the 33 Review, Work, Strong Coffee, Maelstrom, Clark Street Review, Red Rock Review, Big Bridge, Pigeon, The Banana King, Sliced Bread, Old City Cool, Keyhole, OCHO, filling Station, Alehouse, and Black Creek Review. His work has been widely anthologized, and translated into Chinese, Italian and Spanish.
After living in San Francisco for over a decade, he makes his home in Chicago.
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