Geoffrey G. O'Brien
Geoffrey Gordon O'Brien (born May 10, 1969) is an American poet. Educated at Harvard University and the University of Iowa, O'Brien has taught at Brooklyn College, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and has been the Distinguished Poet in Residence at St. Mary's College of California and the Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he currently teaches.
Also recorded as Geoffrey O'Brien · Geoffrey Gordon O'Brien
Geoffrey G. O'Brien

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- Name
- Geoffrey G.
- Birth Name
- Geoffrey Gordon O'Brien
- Birthplace
- United States
- Occupation
- Poet, lecturer
- Born
- 1969 · United States.
- Education
- Harvard University · University of Iowa
- Languages
- English
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Geoffrey Gordon O'Brien (born May 10, 1969) is an American poet. Educated at Harvard University and the University of Iowa, O'Brien has taught at Brooklyn College, The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and has been the Distinguished Poet in Residence at St. Mary's College of California and the Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he currently teaches.
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Geoffrey G. O'Brien (born 1969) is an American poet and writer. The poet was born in United States.
Geoffrey G. O'Brien studied at Harvard University and University of Iowa. The poet worked for University of California, Berkeley. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q5534624 · wikipedia · Geoffrey G. O'Brien
In this article
Biography
Biography
He also teaches in the Prison University Project at San Quentin. On November 9, 2011, O'Brien suffered a rib injury in an altercation with police, while attending a peaceful protest. O'Brien's poem "Fidelio" was published in the March 19, 2018 issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Geoffrey G. O'Brien • Birth Name — Geoffrey Gordon O'Brien • Birthplace — United States • Language — English • Occupation — Poet, lecturer • Genre — Poetry
Works online
Works online
• "from Metropole" The Offending Adam, Issue 22 • "Logic of Confession" at No: a journal of the arts. • "Poem Beginning to End," Boston Review, September/October 2009 • "Mixed Mode," Poets.org
Works
Works
• The Guns and Flags Project (University of California Press, 2002) • 2A (Quemadura, 2006; collaboration with poet Jeff Clark) • Green and Gray (University of California Press, 2007) • Hesiod (The Song Cave (chapbook), 2010) • Poem with No Good Lines (Hand Held Editions (chapbook), 2010) • Metropole (University of California Press, 2011) • People on Sunday (Wave Books, 2013) • Three Poets: Ashbery, Donnelly, O'Brien (Minus A Press, 2013) • Experience in Groups (Wave Books, 2018)
Review
Review
If O'Brien's poems have a sameness of diction and rhythm that verges on monotonous and impersonal, it's the same sameness of heartbeat and breath, prayer and meditation. It's a poetry that asks for patient attention, and gives back all the void's abundance.
Political protest
Political protest
On November 9, 2011, O'Brien took part in Occupy Cal, a demonstration on the Berkeley campus in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. According to reports O'Brien spoke out to a police officer who was hitting a Berkeley student because he would not break his link in a human chain. The police officer hit O'Brien in the ribs, a reaction he would later call "brutal."
Criticism
• An essay on "Tradition and the Individual Talent" by T. S. Eliot. • "Keeping Company," an essay which explores the work of poet Michael Palmer • A Critical Response to John Ashbery's "Clepsydra" • a talk on Whitman and Ashbery
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.LOC. Library of Congress Authorities. LCNAF Cataloging in Publication data - LC Control Number: n 2001040686.
- 2.Mixed Mode- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More
- 3.English.berkeley.edu
- 4.Jesse Kornbluth: The Police Riot at Berkeley: If They'll Beat a Poet Laureate, Will They Kill a Student?
- 5.Geoffrey G. O'Brien:Fidelio
- 6."Fiction Book Review: Experience in Groups" Publishers Weekly
- 7."A review of The Guns and Flags Project", Rain Taxi
- 8."Poet Geoffrey O'Brien joins the Occupy Berkeley protest fray"
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,991 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Geoffrey GrigsonAuthor
- Geoffrey HillAuthor
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