Teachers & Writers Collaborative

Andy Clausen

Andy Clausen was born Andre Laloux in a Belgian bomb shelter in 1943. He was raised in Oakland, California, graduated from Bishop O’Dowd High School in 1961, and attended six colleges. Andy began trying to be a “beat” poet in 1965 after reading Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, et al. He has traveled and read his poetry all over North America and the world (New York, California, Alaska, Texas, Prague, Kathmandu, Amsterdam, etc.). He has maintained a driven, intrepid lifestyle and aspired to be a champion of the underdog. His chief books have been The Iron Curtain of Love, Without Doubt, and his selected verse of thirty years, 40th Century Man. Allen Ginsberg called him the “Future of American Poetry” and, in the introduction to Without Doubt, said he would take a chance on a “President Clausen.” Andy has taught at Naropa Institute and given readings and lectures at many universities. He has worked for poetry in the schools agencies in California, New Jersey, Colorado, and New York. He is now a stonemason, troubadour, and a freelance teacher of creative writing in the New York City school system under the auspices of Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Andy is currently working on memoirs of his friendship and adventures with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and many others of the Beat Generation. In 1982 he was voted the most exciting poet at the Kerouac Conference in Boulder, Colorado.