Steve Dalachinsky

Steve Dalachinsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 29, 1946. A poet, critic, and artist, he was active in the avant-garde and Free Jazz movements. 

Dalachinsky has published multiple collections of poetry, including Selected Poems of Steve Dalachinsky (City Lights, 2026); Where Night and Day Become One: The French Poems (Great Weather for Media, LLC, 2018); and The Final Nite & Other Poems: The Complete Notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook, 1987–2006 (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2006), winner of the PEN Oakland/ Josephine Miles Book Award. He is also the author of the chapbooks The Mantis, written for pianist Cecil Taylor, and Long Play E.P., written for saxophonist Evan Parker. 

Of his work, Amiri Baraka has said, “Steve Dalachinsky is a poet of the real world in a time when reality is despised, dismissed, not understood or lied about.”

Dalachinsky was also the recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize and an Acker Award. He was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize.

Dalachinksy died in Bay Shore, Long Island, on September 15, 2019.