Wyn Cooper

Wyn Cooper (born January 2, 1957) is an American poet. He is best known for his 1987 poem "Fun",

Career He has taught at the University of Utah, Bennington College, Marlboro College, and at The Frost Place Festival of Poetry.

Cooper has served as editor of Quarterly West and recently worked for the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, a think tank run by the Poetry Foundation. He currently works as a freelance editor of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and memoir.

Books His novel Way Out West was released in 2022. His other books are The Unraveling (White Pine Press, 2026), Mars Poetica (White Pine Press, 2018), Chaos is the New Calm (BOA Editions, 2010), Postcards from the Interior (BOA Editions, 2005), The Way Back (White Pine Press, 2000), and The Country of Here Below (Ahsahta Press, 1987).

Poems Cooper's poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Slate Magazine, Poetry, Orion, Gander Press Review, Blackbird, AGNI, Crazyhorse, and Ploughshares and are included in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry.

Songs One of his poems, Fun, where they found a used copy of my book." — Wyn Cooper

Crow's producer Bill Bottrell discovered Cooper's poetry book The Country of Here Below in Cliff's Books, a Pasadena, California, used bookstore. Bottrell adapted Fun into the lyrics for her song when Crow could not come up with usable lyrics, earning Cooper considerable royalties, and helping to publicise his book, originally published in a run of only 500 copies in 1987, into multiple reprints.

In 2002, Cooper's lyrics for a fictional band appeared in ex-college friend Madison Smartt Bell's novel, Anything Goes. In 2003, the songs were put to music by Bell, recorded and produced by bassist Don Dixon, with Mitch Easter, The second CD, with percussionist Jim Brock and bassist/producer Don Dixon, from Bell & Cooper: Postcards Out of the Blue, was based in part on Cooper's book Postcards from the Interior, a suggestion by Dixon. The Way Back (White Pine Press, 2000) Postcards from the Interior (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005) Chaos is the New Calm (BOA Editions, 2010) Mars Poetica (White Pine Press, 2018)

Personal life Cooper resides in Vermont and works as a freelance editor.