Antler is a poet and educator, an explorer of the wilderness without and within. He was born in 1946, in Wisconsin, where he still lives. From his website: Antler spends one to two months per year backpacking and/or canoeing through wilderness and ekes out a living by performing his poems far and wide in the spirit of Whitman's invocation of poets who would be "itinerant gladness scatterers."
Antler received a B.A. in anthropology and a master's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. During the 1970s he worked at various factory and other jobs just long enough to get money to support his poetry writing and be able to spend time in the wilderness areas of the United States. Antler's long poem, "Factory", was published by City Lights in 1980 becoming number 38 in its Pocket Poet Series. Allen Ginsberg declared Factory to be "the most enlightening and magnanimous American poem I've seen by anyone of the 60's and 70's decades." Antler was the poet laureate of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for 2002 and 2003. He leads poetry workshops and gives readings across the United States and in other countries. He has also contributed to numerous local, national, and international journals and anthologies. He is also an advocate for wilderness protection and other causes, and continues to spend much time camping and exploring the wilderness areas he loves.
