Wyn Cooper

'''Wyn Cooper''' (born January 2, 1957) is an American poet. He is best known for his 1987 poem "Fun",<ref name="wyn-cooper-fun"/> which was adapted by Sheryl Crow and Bill Bottrell into the lyrics of Crow's 1994 breakthrough single "All I Wanna Do".

==Early life== Cooper was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Maree Edith Cooper, a teacher's aide, and William Wendell Cooper, a tool-and-die machinist.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/> Cooper was raised in Michigan and attended the University of Utah (B.A., 1979),<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/> Hollins College (M.A., 1981),<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/> and later, the creative writing doctoral program at University of Utah.<ref> {{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=The Way Back |date=2000 |publisher=White Pine Press | location = Buffalo, NY |isbn=978-1-893996-03-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-LMNtNdN8UC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=%22University+of+Utah%22%22Hollins+College%22%22Wyn+Cooper%22 |access-date=8 May 2022 |language=en |page=73 |via= google books}} </ref><ref name="Encyclopedia.com">{{cite web |title=Cooper, Wyn (1957— ) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/cooper-wyn-1957 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

==Career== He has taught at the University of Utah, Bennington College, Marlboro College, and at The Frost Place Festival of Poetry.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Cooper has served as editor of ''Quarterly West'' and recently worked for the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, a think tank run by the Poetry Foundation.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} He currently works as a freelance editor of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and memoir.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

==Books== His novel ''Way Out West'' was released in 2022. His other books are ''The Unraveling'' (White Pine Press, 2026), ''Mars Poetica'' (White Pine Press, 2018), ''Chaos is the New Calm'' (BOA Editions, 2010), ''Postcards from the Interior'' (BOA Editions, 2005), ''The Way Back'' (White Pine Press, 2000), and ''The Country of Here Below'' (Ahsahta Press, 1987).

==Poems== Cooper's poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in ''Slate Magazine'',<ref name="slate/2009/Cooper/daily_threads"> {{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=Daily Threads |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/poem/2009/11/daily_threads.html |website=Slate Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112215953/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/poem/2009/11/daily_threads.html |archive-date=12 January 2012 |date=2009-11-10 |quote=Poem : A weekly poem, read by the author.... Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Wyn Cooper read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.}} </ref> ''Poetry'', ''Orion'', ''Gander Press Review'',<ref> {{cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |editor1-last=Goble |editor1-first=Brant |editor2-last=Goble |editor2-first=Faith |title=Poems |journal=Gander Press Review |date=Fall 2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZxOoRfII0EC |publisher=Loosey Goosey Press |isbn=9780982099100 |language=en |via= google books}} </ref> ''Blackbird'',<ref name="blackbird/v7n1/cooper/like_my_friend"> {{cite journal |volume=7 |issue=1 |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=Like My Friend |url=http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v7n1/poetry/cooper_w/like_my_friend.htm |website=Blackbird |publisher=Virginia Commonwealth University |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513144009/http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v7n1/poetry/cooper_w/like_my_friend.htm |archive-date=13 May 2008 |date=Spring 2008}} </ref> ''AGNI'',<ref name="agni/2006/cooper"> {{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=Euronymous |url=http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2006/cooper.html |website=AGNI |publisher=Boston University |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525060425/http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2006/cooper.html |archive-date=25 May 2006 |location=Boston |date=May 5, 2006 |url-status=dead}} </ref> ''Crazyhorse,'' and ''Ploughshares''<ref> {{cite journal |title=Wyn Cooper |journal=Ploughshares |url=https://www.pshares.org/authors/wyn-cooper |access-date=8 May 2022 |publisher=Emerson College |location=Boston}} </ref> and are included in 25 anthologies{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} of contemporary poetry.

==Songs== One of his poems, ''Fun'',<ref name="wyn-cooper-fun"/> was used for the lyrics of the Sheryl Crow song, "All I Wanna Do".

<blockquote>"But in January 1993, Bill Bottrell and Kevin Gilbert, Sheryl Crow's producer and keyboard player, took a break from recording her first CD, Tuesday Night Music Club, for want of better lyrics to a tune they already had in mind. They went around the corner to Cliff's Books in Pasadena,<ref name="latimes-20131006-cliffs-books">{{cite news |title=Pasadena's Cliff's Books closes up shop |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1006-cliffs-books-20131006-story.html |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=6 October 2013}}</ref> where they found a used copy of my book." — Wyn Cooper<ref name="poets.org/Cooper/three-stories">{{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=Words and Music: Three Stories |url=https://poets.org/text/words-and-music-three-stories |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140619085557/https://poets.org/text/words-and-music-three-stories |archive-date=19 June 2014 |website=poets.org |publisher=Academy of American Poets |access-date=8 May 2022 |date=2012}}</ref></blockquote>

Crow's producer Bill Bottrell discovered Cooper's poetry book ''The Country of Here Below'' in Cliff's Books, a Pasadena, California, used bookstore. Bottrell adapted ''Fun'' into the lyrics for her song when Crow could not come up with usable lyrics, earning Cooper considerable royalties, and helping to publicise his book, originally published in a run of only 500 copies in 1987, into multiple reprints.<ref name="wyn-cooper-fun"> {{cite web | url =http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/books/cooper.htm

| title =Fun | last1 =Cooper | first1 =Wyn | year =1987 | publisher =Ahsahta Press | quote =extracted from 'The Country of Here Below' (Contemporary Poetry of the West Series) | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20010831182855/http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/books/cooper.htm

| archive-date =2001-08-31 | url-status =dead | access-date =2015-01-21 }} </ref><ref name="serendipitous"> {{Cite web |title=Wyn Cooper: A Serendipitous Career |url=https://poets.org/text/wyn-cooper-serendipitous-career |website=Academy of American Poets |date=October 26, 2004 |access-date=November 16, 2020 }} </ref>

In 2002, Cooper's lyrics for a fictional band appeared in ex-college friend<ref name="reformer-2008-rock-bard"> {{cite news |last1=Madeloni |first1=Dave |title=Between a rock and a bard place |url=https://www.reformer.com/local-news/between-a-rock-and-a-bard-place/article_2a56b817-4277-5606-8ccf-b0ccfb0266bb.html |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=Brattleboro Reformer |date=June 26, 2008 |language=en}} </ref> Madison Smartt Bell's novel, ''Anything Goes''. In 2003, the songs were put to music by Bell,<ref name="bookmagazine/issue27">{{cite news |last1=Kettmann |first1=Steve |title=Renaissance Man |url=http://www.bookmagazine.com/issue27/inthemargins.shtml |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=Book |issue=27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030408014823/http://www.bookmagazine.com/issue27/inthemargins.shtml |archive-date=8 April 2003}}</ref> recorded<ref> {{cite web |title=Forty Words For Fear |url=https://sterling-sound.com/discography/forty-words-for-fear/ |website=Sterling Sound |access-date=8 May 2022}} </ref> and produced by bassist Don Dixon, with Mitch Easter,<ref name="gaffmusic-2004-madison"/> and percussionist Jim Brock<ref name="reformer-2008-rock-bard"/> and released as ''Madison Smartt Bell and Wyn Cooper'': ''40 Words for Fear''.<ref name="allmusic-mw0000035917"> {{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Madison Smartt |last2=Cooper |first2=Wyn |title=Forty Words for Fear |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/forty-words-for-fear-mw0000035917 |website=AllMusic |access-date=8 May 2022 |language=en}} </ref><ref name="serendipitous"/><ref name="indyweek/anything-goes"> {{cite news |last1=Kettmann |first1=Steve |title=Anything Goes |url=https://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/AnythingGoes/forty_words_for_fear.htm |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=Indy Week |date=January 8, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030323141255/https://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/AnythingGoes/forty_words_for_fear.htm |archive-date=23 March 2003 |via= Madison Smartt Bell }} </ref><ref name="goucher/mbell/AnythingGoes/show">{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Madison |title=Live Show: Anything Goes* Benefit for Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore, featuring Ruffian |url=http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/AnythingGoes/live_show.htm |website=Faculty Web Pages |publisher=Goucher College |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030330015736/http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/AnythingGoes/live_show.htm |archive-date=30 March 2003 |date=March 1, 2003}}</ref><ref name="goucher.edu/2003/mbell">{{cite web |title=Madison Smartt Bell |url=http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/ |website=Faculty Web Page |publisher=Goucher College |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030801150222/http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell/ |archive-date=2003-08-01}}</ref><ref name="gaffmusic-2004-madison"> {{cite web |title=Madison Smartt Bell & Wyn Cooper |url=http://www.gaffmusic.com/madison_new.html |website=Gaff Music |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040503221011/http://www.gaffmusic.com/madison_new.html |archive-date=3 May 2004}} </ref> The second CD, with percussionist Jim Brock and bassist/producer Don Dixon, from ''Bell & Cooper'':<ref name="myspace/bellandcooper"> {{cite web |title=Bell & Cooper |url=https://www.myspace.com/bellandcooper |website=MySpace |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929074717/https://www.myspace.com/bellandcooper |archive-date=29 September 2012 |quote=Free Music, Tour Dates, Photos, Videos}} </ref>''Postcards Out of the Blue'',<ref name="allmusic-mw0000788461"> {{cite web |author1=Bell & Cooper |title=Postcards out of the Blue |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/postcards-out-of-the-blue-mw0000788461 |website=AllMusic |access-date=8 May 2022 |language=en}} </ref> was based in part on Cooper's book ''Postcards from the Interior'', a suggestion by Dixon.<ref name="reformer-2008-rock-bard"/> Their songs have been used on five television shows.<ref name="reformer-2008-rock-bard"/>

Cooper has also written and recorded songs with David Broza, David Baerwald, and Jody Redhage.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

==Works== *''The Country of Here Below'' (Ahsahta Press, 1987)<ref> {{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=The Country of Here Below |date=1987 |publisher=Ahsahta Press |location=Boise, Idaho |isbn=978-0-916272-34-0 |edition=1 |access-date=8 May 2022 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXCcIJMoGR4C |language=en |oclc=18272513 }} </ref><ref> {{cite web |last1=Cooper |first1=Wyn |title=The Country of Here Below |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31210006985269 |publisher=Ahsahta Press |edition=1 |location=Boise, Idaho |access-date=8 May 2022 |date=1987 |via= HathiTrust Digital Library }} </ref> *''The Way Back'' (White Pine Press, 2000) *''Postcards from the Interior'' (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005) *''Chaos is the New Calm'' (BOA Editions, 2010)<ref>{{cite web |title=Contributors |url=https://ducts.sundresspublications.com/content/contributors-33/ |website=Ducts.org |publisher=Sundress Publications |access-date=8 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> *''Mars Poetica'' (White Pine Press, 2018)

==Personal life== Cooper resides in Vermont and works as a freelance editor.

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.wyncooper.com/ official website] * {{cite web |title=Cooper, Wyn (1957— ) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/cooper-wyn-1957 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Wyn}} Category:Living people Category:People from Windham County, Vermont Category:Poets from Michigan Category:American male poets Category:20th-century American poets Category:1957 births Category:University of Utah alumni

Wyn Cooper

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