RON PADGETT's recent books include How to Be Perfect (poems), If I Were You (collaborative works), a translation (with Bill Zavatsky) of Valery Larbaud's Poems of A. O. Barnabooth, and two memoirs, Oklahoma Tough: My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers and Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard. Padgett is also the editor of The Handbook of Poetic Forms as well as the translator of Blaise Cendrars' Complete Poems. He has collaborated with artists such as Jim Dine, Alex Katz, George Schneeman, and Joe Brainard. Last year Padgett was elected Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets , and this year he is the recipient of the Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America. For more information, go to www.ronpadgett.com.