Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 610

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

4 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Gil Ott papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1981-2003 (inclusive)

Creator:

Ott, Gil

Form:

Writings (documents), Financial records, Correspondence, Manuscripts, American -- 20th century, Machine-readable artifacts, Audiovisual materials, and Poetry

Abstract:

The collection comprises correspondence, personal writings, submissions, journals, notebooks, grant and financial records, and computer files on a hard-drive.

Gil Ott, born February 27, 1950, is a widely published essayist and poet. He is the publisher of Singing Horse Press, a literary press, which has produced over twenty-five titles by emerging poets and writers in the past twenty-seven years. The journal Paper Air, which the Press published from 1976 through 1990, was the recipient of an Editors' Fellowship from the Council of Literary Magazines and presses in 1985.

According to Ott, "there are a lot of writers who are not getting national exposure"; consequently he founded the Philadelphia Publishing Project, which addresses this problem by printing one book by a Philly poet each year. For this project, Ott looks for people who are "stepping outside the accepted notions of language and have a willingness to take risks with the materials itself."

Ott's own writing has won several awards, including fellowships from the Headlands Center for the Arts (California), and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Gil Ott has written thirteen books of poetry and prose, including The Yellow Floor (Sun & Moon, 1985), Within Range (Burning Deck, 1987), Public Domain (Potes & Poets, 1989), The Whole Note (Zasterle, Canary Islands, Spain, 1996), Traffic (Chax Press, 2001), and his final book, The Amputated Toe (Cuneiform Press, 2005). Essays focusing on the role of the arts in social change have appeared in American Poetry Review, High Performance, American News Service, M/E/A/N/I/N/G, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Cultural Democracy, and other sources.

Ott has several poems and songs on the Frequency Audio Journal.

In 2004, Ott turned the press over to Paul Naylor.

Ott is a fund-raising professional with decades of experience in cultural and community-based nonprofit management. From 1981 through 1995, he worked at Philadelphia's Painted Bride Art Center, first conducting a capital campaign, then creating an extensive network of community-based arts and educational collaborations. He served as the first Director of Development for Liberty Resources, a consumer-run organization, which advocates for the rights of people with disabilities. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the Community Education Center and Point Breeze Performing Arts Center.

He lived in Philadelphia with his wife, poet and educator Julia Blumenreich and their daughter Willa. Gil Ott died in 2004.

The papers of Gil Ott at the University of Pennsylvania Library consist of his correspondence, as well as his personal writings. Also included are Ott's submissions, journal/notebooks, press clippings and even an audio tape of Ott telling stories. The papers also comprise Ott's grant and financial records, and his computer files and computer hard-drive.