Russell Atkins, author, composer, lecturer, commentator, theorist, and artist, is one of the leading experimental figures of the past three decades. One of the earliest concrete poets in this country, Atkins is an innovator in poetic drama who has a high regard for craftsmanship. Better known abroad than in America, he brought a "new sweep, a complex of relationships to poetry and music" that did not exist prior to the appearance of his works.

Atkins was born on 25 February 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Perry Kelly and Mamie Bell Atkins. He studied piano with his mother at the age of seven and showed evidence of drawing and painting skills in the early grades at Giddings Elementary School. By the time he was thirteen, Atkins had won several poetry contests and had written short plays for puppets which he had created himself.

Atkins attended Central High School and exceeded the...