Philip Levine came to teach at Fresno State in 1958 and Peter Everwine followed in 1962; C.G. Hanclicek came in 1966 and the initial group of Fresno poets collected here became students and colleagues of theirs. Sadly, about one third of the poets in Naming the Lost are no longer with us. This book focuses then on the community of poets first coming through Fresno, beginning in the early 1960s, starting it all off.

Naming the Lost: The Fresno Poets--Interviews & Essays, preserves an amazing nexus of poetic talent and fellowship, and documents the providence that brought so many outstanding poets to Fresno--early '60s through the '80s--a confluence and coincidence of talent and personalities unlikely to be seen again.