Laurence Overmire (USA) is an emerging voice for conscience and consciousness in the poetry world. Popularly known as “The Genealogist-Poet,” he has had a multi-faceted career as writer, actor, director and educator. His award-winning poetry, eclectic in form, style, and subject matter, and often provocative in its direct confrontation of social issues, has been widely published in the U.S. and abroad.

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1957, and raised in Ohio, Mr. Overmire has also lived in New York City, Los Angeles, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Alaska at various times in his life.  He graduated as Valedictorian from Muskingum College, Ohio, with a B.A. and a B.S. in 1979, and was awarded a Bush Fellowship to attend the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with an  M.F.A. in 1981.  He made his professional acting debut at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, then went on to a successful career in New York and Hollywood, appearing on Broadway, film, and television.  He also served as Executive Producer of the Writer's Lab, a non-profit organization in Hollywood to promote quality writing in the entertainment industry.  For over 25 years, he has been involved in teaching in the arts, designing programs for Lincoln Center Institute, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Oregon Children's Theatre among others. 

Mr. Overmire began writing poetry in earnest in the eighties while living the actor's life in New York as a way to document and reflect upon his experience, compiling what he refers to as a “diary in art.”  He did not begin publishing until 1998 when his work was enthusiastically embraced by the so-called "small market press."   Overmire's background in the arts, rather than in academia, gives him a decidedly different approach to poetry, one that advocates complete freedom within the art form, simplicity of language, and focus on the importance of what is being said.  Like an actor taking on characters, his pieces take on many voices and run the gamut from beat to lyric to classical in style and tone.  His work is at once accessible, yet multi-layered and quite complex upon further examination.  As a result, he has gained quite a following among those who appreciate his down-to-earth musings on what he sees going on in our world today.

The selection of poems presented here and collectively titled, “Bearer of the Cup,” reflect Mr. Overmire's keen interest in family history and human relationship.  A respected genealogist, Mr. Overmire is himself a descendant of Gov. William Bradford, William Brewster, and eight other Mayflower passengers, three Native American ancestral lines, England's King Edward III, Scotland's Robert the Bruce and Sir William “Braveheart” Wallace.  He is a distant cousin of poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, e. e. cummings and T. S. Eliot, as well as playwrights Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams. Mr. Overmire is quick to point out, however, that such relationships are not at all unusual. In fact, much of his poetry is focused on this central theme, that we are all related, all part of the same human family, and intimately dependent on one another for our collective well-being. He has published several impressive genealogical studies online, most notably “The Ancestry of Overmire, Tifft, Richardson, Bradford, Reed,” which includes the family trees of many U. S. Presidents and European monarchs, and a host of famous statesmen, soldiers, artists, actors, writers, poets, musicians, scientists, inventors, and social reformers. His work has helped tens of thousands of people discover their family roots and find their intimate connections to the people and events that have shaped world history.

Laurence currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, actress and producer Nancy McDonald.

Website: http://overmirepoetry.home.comcast.net