{{Short description|American poet}} {{Infobox writer |name = Frank Sherlock |image = Frank Sherlock.jpg |image_size = |caption = Sherlock at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, 2018 |birth_name = |birth_date = <!-- {{birth year and age|}} --> |birth_place = |occupation = Poet |genre = Poetry |notableworks = }}
'''Frank Sherlock''' is an American poet, and second Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite news|last=Timpane|first=John|url=http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-01/news/46874150_1_poet-laureate-siduri-beckman-beth-feldman-brandt|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224035423/http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-01/news/46874150_1_poet-laureate-siduri-beckman-beth-feldman-brandt|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 24, 2014|accessdate=18 February 2014|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=February 1, 2014|title=Frank Sherlock is Phila.'s second poet laureate}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Middleton|first=John|title=Frank Sherlock Named Philly's Second Poet Laureate|url=http://www.phillymag.com/ticket/2014/01/31/frank-sherlock-named-phillys-second-poet-laureate/|accessdate=18 February 2014|newspaper=Philadelphia Magazine|date=January 31, 2014}}</ref> He was a 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts.
==Life== Frank Sherlock was the 2014–15 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, and a 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts for Literature.<ref name="PEW">{{cite news |title=Frank Sherlock 2013 PEW FELLOW |url=https://www.pewcenterarts.org/people/frank-sherlock |accessdate=25 February 2019 |work=The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage |date=November 30, 2016}}</ref> His most recent collection of poems is ''Space Between These Lines Not Dedicated'' (Ixnay Press, 2014). Sherlock approaches the work of a poet as conduit,<ref>{{cite web|title=Frank Sherlock on Giving Voice|url=http://www.pcah.us/posts/229_questions_of_practice_frank_sherlock_on_giving_voice|website=The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage|date=19 December 2014 |accessdate=23 February 2015}}</ref> and views writing poems as "collaborations of encounter".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Reutter|first1=G.E.|title=Talking with Frank Sherlock|url=http://www.madpoetssociety.com/2008/01/talking-with-frank-sherlock/|website=Mad Poets Society|accessdate=23 February 2015}}</ref> His projects are often collaborative.<ref name="Kaufman"/>
''The City Real and Imagined'' (Factory School, 2010) was written with the poet C. A. Conrad as a re-visioning of public spaces in what they refer to as "the City of Otherly Love."<ref name="Kaufman">{{cite web|last1=Kaufman|first1=Erica|title=Allowing oneself to 'be the city'|url=http://jacket2.org/reviews/allowing-oneself-be-city|website=Jacket2|accessdate=23 February 2015}}</ref> The two embarked on self-guided psycho-geographical wanders through Philadelphia, each beginning at LOVE Park.<ref name="Kaufman"/><ref name="Henriksen"/>
Sherlock's time in New Orleans in 2006 resulted in a collaboration with poet Brett Evans, entitled ''Ready-To-Eat Individual'' (Lavender Ink, 2008). In an interview with Katy Henriksen for ''Oxford American: New Orleans & the Gulf Coast Issue'', 2008: "The cases of DIY rebirth were everywhere around us, and it was a secret that had stayed within the region’s limits. Also, the effects of a city (with virtually no public services) trying to deal with a shared psychic wound of post-traumatic stress, its effect on the kids of New Orleans shuffled across town into schools with more security guards than teachers, the spike in street crime (partly as a result of these things) and other issues of displacement are largely untold stories in the national conversation. But there is also the light and dark magic of the city that cannot be explained in a straight-ahead journalist pursuit. Brett and I decided we could best talk about the state of the city post- [[Hurricane Katrina|[Hurricane] Katrina]] through the medium of poetry."<ref name="Henriksen">{{cite web|last1=Henriksen|first1=Katy|title=Ready-To-Eat Individual|url=http://www.oxfordamerican.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=493|website=Oxford American}}</ref>
"I approach poetry as a cartographer," said Sherlock; "... mapping and remapping your surroundings according to your personal memory and associations and histories that you've heard."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Crimmins|first1=Peter|title=Frank Sherlock Poet Laureate for city of 'Otherly Love'|url=http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/arts-culture/64472-frank-sherlock-poet-laureate-for-city-of-otherly-love|website=NewsWorks}}</ref> His project as Poet Laureate, "Write Your Block", gives Philadelphians the opportunity to explore their neighborhoods via poetry. Originally a project with the city's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Write Your Block lives on at ''The Philadelphia Citizen'', so people citywide can use poetry to map the personal landmarks, histories, traditions and experiences that help identify their communities.<ref name="Write">{{cite web |last1=Sherlock |first1=Frank |title=Write Your Block |url=http://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/write-your-block/ |website=Philadelphia Citizen |accessdate=25 February 2019}}</ref>
In 2019, the literary community learned of a time in the late 1980s where he was with a white nationalism-oriented skinhead punk group. His politics turned Left after he entered Temple University. He considers the white nationalist period of his life "a point of great shame for me" and the discovery of it led to debate.<ref>[https://www.philly.com/news/nationalist-punk-skinhead-cancel-race-poetry-20190501.html Philadelphia Inquirer]</ref>
==Works== '''Books''' *''[http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780692028223/space-between-these-lines-not-dedicated.aspx Space Between These Lines Not Dedicated]'', [https://ixnaypress.com/ ixnay press] (2014) OCLC [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/887856523 887856523] *''The City Real & Imagined'' (w/ CAConrad), Factory School: Heretical Texts v.5 (2010) *''Over Here'', Factory School: Heretical Texts v.4 (2009) *''Ready-to-Eat Individual'' (w/ Brett Evans), Lavender Ink (2008) OCLC [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/244565268 1055273795] '''Chapbooks''' *''Neighbor Ballads'', Albion Books (2013) *''Very Different Animals'', Fact-Simile Press (2012) *''Don't Forget Me in the Dimension You Choose to Live'', Splitleaves Press (2010) *''Feast Day Gone & Coming'', Cy Gist Press (2010) *''Over Here'', Katalanche Press (2008) *''Daybook of Perversities & Main Events'', Cy Gist Press (2007) *''Quatro'', Dusie Press (2007) *''Wounds in an Imaginary Nature Show'', Night Flag Books (2007) *''Spring Diet of Flowers at Night'', Mooncalf Press (2006) *''ISO'', Furniture Press (2004) *''End/Begin w/ Chants'' (w/ CAConrad) Mooncalf Press (2001) *''Thirteen'', Ixnay Press (1998) '''Anthologies''' *''BOOG Philly Reader'', BOOG Books (2012) *''Journeys South'', City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (2011) *''OWS Anthology'', People's Library (2011) *''Elective Affinities'', CSR Cooperative (2010) *''Sturm and Drang: New Orleans Anthology'', Big Bridge/ Trembling Pillow Press (2009) *''Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space'', Palm Press (2008)
'''Public Works/Installations''' *''Refuse Reuse: Language for the Common Landfill'', Crane Arts Icebox, Philadelphia, PA (2012) *''Kensington Riots Project'', Philadelphia, PA (2012) *''Neighbor Ballads'', City of Philadelphia, PA Mural Arts Program. South Philadelphia, PA (2011) *''The B. Franklin Basement Tapes'' (w/ CAConrad), Nexus Foundation for Today's Art. Philadelphia, PA (2005)
==See also== {{Portal|Poetry|Literature}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Library resources box|by=yes |lcheading= |viaf=78982035}}
*[http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2014/03/05/meet-philadelphia-poet-laureate-frank-sherlock/ Meet Philadelphia Poet Laureate Frank Sherlock- Radio Times WHYY] *[http://www.pcah.us/people/frank_sherlock Pew Fellow Frank Sherlock ] *[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Sherlock.html Frank Sherlock- PENNSOUND Audio] *[http://franksherlock.blogspot.com/ Late Late Capital Bootleg Sessions ]
{{Authority control}} {{Philadelphia Poets Laureate|state=autocollapse}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherlock, Frank}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century American writers Category:20th-century male writers Category:1960s births Category:Pew Fellows in the Arts Category:Poets laureate of Philadelphia Category:Temple University alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)