NATURE LOVERS
"When my conscience goes south for the winter, I turn to the fearless Charles Potts, a Moralist with a sense of humor. If he had an 800 number I'd call him every day!"
- Ronald Koertge
Brief Biography of Charles Potts
Since returning to active publishing & writing in 1989, Charles Potts has published a half dozen more books of poetry, a novel, and a work of political and economic geography, How the South Finally Won the Civil War: And Controls the Political Future of the United States
He is the founder & president of Tsunami Inc., a for-profit corporation dedicated to publishing and promoting contemporary poetry including the well-reviewed Pacific Northwestern Spiritual Poetry, in 1998. < www.tsunami-inc.net > In addition to first edition poetry books, TI publishes The Temple, Gu Si, El Templo, a quarterly of poetry now midway through its fourth year, that focuses on translations of contemporary poetry from Chinese and Spanish in addition to contemporary poetry in English.
He was presented with the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award from the College of Arts& Sciences at Idaho State University during the 1994 commencement.
His biography is of record in Who's Who in the West, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World.
His novel, Loading Las Vegas, won Manuscripts International's 13th annual prize of $2,500 for creative excellence in fiction.
He contributed a political column to What's Up, an arts and entertainment newspaper in Walla Walla and Tri-Cities, Washington, and has written on "Japan's Political Choices" for the Gaijin Gleaner, Kyushu's only regular English language publication.
An early selected poems of Charles Potts, Rocky Mountain Man, was published by The Smith press in New York City in 1978.
He reads across the United States and has been a featured reader many times at Bumbershoot in Seattle, at LitEruption in Portland, at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles.
His most recent anthology appearances were in Vol Pupuli from the Seattle Poetry Festival, Portland Lights, Maverick Western Verse from Gibbs Smith, Men of Our Time from the University of Georgia, and Will Work for Peace from Zeropanik Press.
He is an Accomplished Toastmaster, an investment real estate broker, and a Master Practitioner in the Society of Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Charles Potts was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1943. He was raised on a ranch east of Mackay, Idaho, and attended public schools, graduating from Idaho State University in Pocatello in 1965 with a B.A. in English. He has been a published poet since 1963.
- "In spirit, he's reminiscent of the late, great Thomas McGrath."
--Doug Marx on The Dictatorship of the Environment
- "Potts' style is like old sunbeaten lumber: square, utilitarian,
splintery...like talking to an intelligent, self-educated rancher."
--Douglas Spangle on "100 Years in Idaho"
- "Despite the buzz-word title, this is a nice selection of poems. Several
poems extract the brilliance of Haiku in short concise thoughts, though some
almost follow the haiku form. Charles Potts has a nice voice, mixing
contemporary poetry with a literary background coupled with the strength of
life lived. In my mind, I would see him as a modern Beat, in the best context
of the concept."
--Brian Booty on "Fascist haikus"