Draft:Jason O'Toole

Jason O’Toole is the 6th Poet Laureate of North Andover, Massachusetts and a co-founder of the Anne Bradstreet Poetry Contest, author of a number of poetry collections, and a vocalist and lyricist best known as the singer for the New York Hardcore Punk band Life’s Blood.

In 2023, Jason O’Toole was chosen by the Town of North Andover as their 6th Poet Laureate. A former criminal investigator, he is the risk manager and human rights officer at a psychiatric hospital and Treasurer of Independent Living Resource Center – San Francisco, CA, where he and fellow board member and author Laura Albert (J.T. LeRoy) teach a writer’s workshop for people living with a disability. Losing his oldest child Alex, a trans man of 18, to Leukemia, shifted his focus to a stronger advocacy for LGBTQ rights and he is active in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in his professional and personal life.

He is former vocalist for bands including Life’s Blood and MyRifle,  and continues to contribute vocals and spoken word to recordings to projects including Herr Lounge Corps and D.U.M.E.

He was an original member of Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (S.H.A.R.P.) in NYC and created the first zines and cartoons associated with that movement.

In his teenage years, he was active as a zine editor and all ages show promoter in NYHC. He was the author of one of the defining statements of the Straightedge movement along with Brian Baker, Sam McPheeters, and Dave Stein.

At Eugene Lang College, he worked with Stanley Diamond as Assistant Editor of Dialectical Anthropology. During that time he worked on-on-one with Poet in the University Dr. Diamond on writing and editing poetry as well as organizing and promoting the first public reading of Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, following the accident that left Dr. Achebe dependent on the use of a wheelchair.

He co-founded the Anne Bradstreet Poetry Contest in 2020 in honor of the first poet to be published in America.

Jason’s poetry, opinion and commentary has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, The Lowell Review, Nixes Mate Review, Gargoyle, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, among several other outlets. Spear of Stars was chosen as one of Freddy Alva’s favorite Releases of 2018 in No Echo. His poem Samsara, first published in The Scriblerus, was nominated for a Rhysling Award.

Bibliography.

Spear of Stars The Red Salon. 2018 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1732502323

Soulless Heavens. The Red Salon. 2019 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1734125403

Poison Moonlight. Blood Pudding Press. 2020 (Chapbook)

The Strange Misgivings of the Sadly Gifted. DiWulf Publishing House. 2024

Selected Anthologies.

The 2020 Rhysling Anthology: The best science fiction, fantasy, & horror poetry of 2019 selected by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. 2020. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8628876466

Purifying Wind. Moon Shadow Sanctuary. 2020. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0578671107

Poets with Masks On: A Pandemic Anthology. Finishing Line Press. 2022. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 164662730X

Select Discography:

Life’s Blood “Defiance” Combined Effort Records. 1988

Life’s Blood – Discography – Vermiform. 1996

Life’s Blood – Hardcore A.D. 1988. Prank. 2017

V/A Where the Wild Things Are. Blackout.

My Rifle. “Fall on Your Sword.” Wardance. 2011

Herr Lounge Corp & Jason O’Toole  “National Zoo.” 2023