Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Clark Coolidge now lives in Petaluma, California. He is the author of more than forty books, including Space, Solution Passage, The Crystal Text, At Egypt, Now It’s Jazz: Writings on Kerouac & The Sounds, The Act of Providence, and most recently 88 Sonnets and A Book Beginning What And Ending Away. In 2011 he edited a collection of Philip Guston’s writings and talks for University of California Press. Initially a drummer, he was a member of David Meltzer’s Serpent Power in 1967 and Mix group in 1993–94. Currently he has returned to active drumming with Thurston Moore and the free jazz band Ouroboros.