Remembrance of Holly Prado Northup (1938-2019)

"Go Live Somewhere Perfect" / "Okay here I am"

—Holly Prado (her writing name)

Holly Prado Northup died on June 14, 2019, at the West Hills Hospital. A beloved creative writing teacher and deeply respected and admired poet, I loved Holly with all of my heart. We met in 1977 through poetry, began going together, married in 1990. Holly loved to write. I picture her sitting down, holding her journal, writing in it. She loved the journal form, loved American poetry, loved those writers who worked with her, loved Cahuenga Press, loved living at MPTF. She was a wonderful poet, a beautiful radiant woman. She has a book coming out this fall, "Weather," from Cahuenga Press. Holly loved my son Dylan and his daughter Oceanna. She was 81.

"When I first started writing full time in 1973, I told my self I am not going to get rich doing this; I am doing this because I love writing," Holly said.

Holly Kay Johnson was born on May 2, 1938, to Philip and Gladys Johnson, in Lincoln, Nebraska, where her father was the Circulation Manager for the Lincoln Star. When Holly was 10-years old, she saw the moon in the daytime sky and was so captivated she wrote a poem. She showed it to her mother, who praised it.

In her mid-teens, her family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating from high school, Holly attended Albion College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. In 1960, she moved to L.A., where she worked in a lawyer's office downtown. She attended Cal. State, L.A. and got her teaching credential. She taught English at Marshall High School for seven years. In 1973, with a desire to write, she left the LAUSD and began to teach privately in her home, which gave her an income and time to write.

Holly studied poetry with Alvaro Cardona-Hine. In the class was Ameen Alwan, who introduced Holly to the prose poem, which she excelled in. In 1973, she became the Master Poet Teacher in Poets in the School, working under a one-year grant from the federal Department of Labor.

Three books followed in a few years: Nothing Breaks Off at the Edge (New Rivers Press, which is still going); Losses, a book on the death of her father, (Laurel Press); Feasts, published by Bill Mohr's Momentum Press. Holly calls Feasts "poetic-autobiographical fiction." What I saw in it was intricacy, a sensuousness use of language that showed affection for women, a sense of community. The entire chapter VIII: "to turn our gold into ordinary ground, the best possible solution." This is an experimental book: poetry and prose alternate, double columns at times. Holly said, "Bill Mohr took a chance on Feasts." Feasts exemplifies the reawakening of the inner spirit in women's lives in the early-mid 1970s. Prado's writing has a stateliness in ordinariness. Along with the aforementioned themes in Holly's work, I would also add love and loss, all written in asymmetrical rhythms and if you read Holly's poetry clearly and deeply enough, you will see that the death of Holly's mother, when Holly was 16, is the source of her creativity and sorrow. You will also see that Holly's poems start with an image.

In the mid-1970s, Holly taught in the Feminist Writing Studio at the Woman's Building. Starting in the late 1980s, she taught poetry in the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC for 20 years.

She taught writing in her home for 44 years. A stellar group of writers studied with her. In "The Tall, Upheaving One," from Esperanza: Poems For Orpheus, she writes "Orpheus can make us anything, // can make us god's own door..." The last line reads, "I'm calling and I'm calling and I'm called." She had a reservoir inside of herself that allowed her to write poetry, fiction—the novel: Gardens, pub. by Harcourt Brace Javanovich—personal essays, literary criticism. In 1977, Art Siedenbaum, the L.A. Times Book Editor, asked Holly to review books for The Times, which she did for 6 1/2 years. In that time period, she also wrote the column, "In Verse," for the Book Review for 3 1/2 years, focusing on reviews of small literary presses both local and national.

1989 saw the creation of Cahuenga Press. Holly is one of the founding members, along with its present members: James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams and me. The first book published by Cahuenga Press was her Specific Mysteries. In "Poets in Autumn," she lists "carriers of seed": "lorca neruda akhmatova" and ends "why go on except for such a family." Her poem "Bread Worth Eating" from Specific Mysteries, reads in its entirety: "when I came alive today / there was no one to forgive / not even my own courage // ten years to learn a craft and then // perhaps one useful bowl." This is a poem from Holly's latest poetry book, Oh, Salt / O Desiring Hand (Cahuenga Press, 2013), also in its entirety: "Go Live Somewhere Perfect" / "Okay here I am."

In 2006, Holly Prado Northup received a "Certificate of Recognition" for her poetry and teaching from the City of Los Angeles.

She has always loved the Los Angeles poetry community and was proud to be included in Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, published in 2015.

Holly Prado has upheld and enlarged the possibilities of language. The excellence of her poetry, her vision, her use of the personal in poetry has elevated the discourse of poetry.

Holly Prado Northup was living in The Villa, at the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Woodland Hills, Ca., with her husband actor-poet Harry Northup, at the time of her death. She leaves behind her husband Harry Northup, his son Dylan Northup and grand-daughter Oceanna Northup.

Harry Northup