The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

Published in 1999, this sizeable volume, edited by Alan Kaufman and S.A. Griffin, houses a raucous gathering of Beat poets, spoken word artists, slam poets, and other revolutionaries.

In forms ranging from the epistle through the manifesto to the hip-hop lyric, The Outlaw Bible presents over six hundred pages of countercultural writing divided into sections with titles like "Slammers", "Meat Poets", and "American Renegades". The anthology also includes interview material, photographs, articles, and biographical information.

The eclectic mix of poets includes Ai, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, David Trinidad, Diane diPrima, Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Sapphire, as well as those not traditionally thought of as poets in the literary sense (Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Janis Joplin), and writers who primarily wrote in alternate genres (Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor).

The first in a series of Outlaw texts, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry was later followed up by the anthologies The Outlaw Bible of American Literature (2004) and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays (2006), both also co-edited by Kaufman.