Janaka Stucky

Janaka Stucky is an American poet, performer, independentpress publisher, and impresario, based in Boston, Massachusetts. The founder of Black Ocean, an independent press, and publisher of its journal Handsome, he is also the author of three collections of his poetry Your Name Is The Only Freedom , The World Will Deny It For You , and The Truth Is We Are Perfect . His articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. In 2010, he was awarded the title Best Poet by the The Boston Phoenix in its annual Bostons Best readers poll.

Janaka Stucky was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and spent much of his childhood in an ashram. He was originally named Jonathan, but when he was eight months old, his parents guru suggested they christen him Janaka, after the ancient king of Mithila, a spiritual leader whose philosophy is chronicled in the Ashtavakra Gita and whose attainment of perfection is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita . Stucky received a BFA degree from Emerson College, where he cofounded the street poetry collective The Guerilla Poets. He received his MFA degree in Poetry from Vermont College in 2003.

Source: Wikipedia