Don Thompson

Poet Don Thompson was born in Bakersfield, California, in 1942, and has lived in the southern San Joaquin Valley for most of his life. Retired from teaching in a nearby prison, he and his wife, Chris, live on her family’s cotton farm.

Thompson's publications include Been There, Done That (2002), Sittin’ on Grace Slick’s Stoop (2006), Turning Sixty (2008), Where We Live (2009), and Everything Barren Will Be Blessed (2012). Back Roads won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize for 2008. Allan M. Jalon's profile of Thompson, “Planted in the San Joaquin,” appeared in the LA Times and remains available online.