Vernon Frazer

Vernon Frazer received a B.A. in English from the University of Connecticut and briefly attended graduate school at Simon Fraser University.
After writing fiction for twenty years, Frazer began writing poetry at age 36. Since then he has published two novels, Relic's Reunions and Commercial Fiction, a short story collection, Stay Tuned to This Channel, and twelve books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed longpoem, IMPROVISATIONS.
A bassist as well as a poet, Frazer pioneered the resurgence of the jazz-poetry fusion in the late 1980s and early 1990s with three recordings: Sex Queen Of The Berlin Turnpike, Slam! and Song of Baobab and many performances at venues such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Knitting Factory. A long-time collaborator with the legendary jazz saxophonist Thomas Chapin, Frazer appeared as guest poet on Chapin’s Menagerie Dreams CD. “Put Your Quarter in and Watch the Chicken Dance,” the piece Chapin commissioned Frazer to write, also appeared on The Jazz Voice, a compilation of jazz vocalists and poets.
In 1994, Frazer was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, which he considers a defining moment in his life. Frazer credits this widely misunderstood neurological condition with giving him a lifelong exposure to the “existential edge” and shaping his creative work. His 1998 poetry collection, Sing Me One Song of Evolution, documents his life-transforming discovery.
The ground covered in Sing Me One Song of Evolution led Frazer to explore language and visual poetry as a means of expanding his range of expression. His exploratory work has appeared in many prominent print and online literary magazines, as well as in such poetry collections as Avenue Noir, Bodied Tone, Holiday Idylling and Emblematic Moon. Samples of his visual poetry are housed in the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.
Frazer is married and lives in South Florida.