Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. LGBT Studies. "I think of aspiration as the state where a poet's thrown together life-structures both invite and are breached by the poet's preoccupations—known ones, new ones. It's the dream of meaningful placement and the open set."—George Albon George Albon is the author of EMPIRE LIFE (Littoral Books, 1998), Thousands Count Out Loud (lyric&press, 2000), BRIEF CAPITAL OF DISTURBANCES (Omnidawn Publishing, 2003), STEP (The Post-Apollo Press, 2006), MOMENTARY SONGS (Krupskaya, 2008), and ASPIRATION (Omnidawn Publishing, 2013). His work has appeared in HAMBONE, NEW AMERICAN WRITING, O Anthology 4, Avec Sampler 1, and the anthologies The Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry, BAY POETICS, and Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard. His essay "The Paradise of Meaning" was the George Oppen Memorial Lecture for 2002. He lives and works in San Francisco.