Tony Towle was born in New York in 1939 and has lived there most of his life, at present in Tribeca with actress Diane Tyler. He has two grown children, Scott and Rachel.
Towle began writing poetry in 1960 (see Memoir 1960-1963, in Publications) and became associated with the New York School of Poetry three years later, when he took poetry workshops with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara. His first major collection, North, was the Frank O’Hara Award for 1970 and published by Columbia University Press. (See Publications for a complete list of books.) He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Poets Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation, among other prizes and honors.

Anthologies: The Best American Poetry 2006 (2006), 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day (2005), Voices of the City (2004), Poetry Daily (2003), Poetry After 9/11 (2002), The Angel Hair Anthology (2001), The KGB Bar Book of Poems (2000), Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (1994), Broadway 2 (1989), Capstan (1976), Another World (1972), An Anthology of New York Poets (1970), Poets of the New York School (1969), The Young American Poets (1968), Poems Now (1966).



The poet looking toward Manhattan from rooftop in Queens, c. 1944.

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