Hamill, Sam.

Sam Hamill is the author of over 30 books, including original poetry, essays, and translations from Chinese, Japanese, Estonian, Latin, and Greek. Included among his works are Nootka Rose (1987), A Poet's Work: The Other Side of Poetry (1990), Only Companion: Japanese Poems of Love and Longing (1992), Destination Zero: Poems, 1970-1995 (1995), Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck (2002).

Hamill received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Guggenheim Memorial fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, two Washington Governor's Arts Awards, and many other honors.

Details of Hamill's earliest years are vague. He was born in 1942 or 1943 to unknown parents. His birth father apparently gave him up for adoption when Hamill was about three years old; he was adopted by Sam and Freeda Hamill, who raised him near Holladay, UT. He attended Los Angeles Valley College and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has one daughter, Eron, from his first marriage.

Along with being a poet and editor, Hamill is also a teacher: he taught inmates in prisons for fourteen years, and participated in artist-in-residence programs for twenty years.

Sam Hamill, a few fellow poets, and Tree Swenson (who later became Hamill's wife) established Copper Canyon Press in Denver, CO. The initial capital for the press was a five hundred dollar check Hamill had received for "producing the best college or university literary journal in the country" as the editor of Spectrum, a University of California, Santa Barbara, journal. Copper Canyon's first title, Badlands by Gerald Costanzo, was published in 1973.

In 1974 the press was moved to Port Townsend, WA, to Centrum, a non-profit arts center located at Fort Worden State Park, becoming Centrum's press-in-residence. The press became a not-for-profit operation in 1990.

From the guide to the Sam Hamill Papers, 1972-2001, (Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)