Ron Padgett’s books include the poetry collections How to Be Perfect, You Never Know, and Great Balls of Fire, as well as three memoirs, Ted: A Personal Memoir of Ted Berrigan; Oklahoma Tough: My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers; and Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard. Padgett has received Fulbright, NEA, Guggenheim, and Civitella Ranieri fellowships, and was named Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and his How Long was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry. His new book is Collected Poems. Tony Towle’s poetry career began fifty years ago, when he attended workshops with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara at the New School. Memoir 1960-1963 (Faux Press, 2001) chronicles that time and his early years as a poet in New York. His first major collection, North, was published in 1970, in conjunction with the Frank O’Hara Award for that year. His 12th book of poems, Winter Journey, appeared from Hanging Loose in 2008. Including the New Year’s Day readings, this will be the 65th time he has read at the Poetry Project.