VertigoXX’s Profile

Vertigo Xi'an Xavier: blue-collar grunt by day, small-press publisher and national poetry slam team manager by night. As a teen, poetry and art gave him a way to express the inner turmoil and angst that came from being a bookworm creative type in a football-obsessed town. As the World Wide Web came to be, it provided him with a place where he could find an audience that his local community did not yet offer. In 1995, he put together a little internet zine using his free AOL webspace. By October 1997, the little zine had gotten too big for AOL, so he launched The Poet's Haven on its own domain and has kept the press moving forward ever since. He still enjoys crafting fun and satirical pieces from time to time, but is much more comfortable behind the scenes as an editor, publisher, and promoter, working to help push poetry and art into the larger public view. When folks ask him why he does everything he does, he always says: "Poetry is cheaper than a drug habit and provides a much more sustainable high. By surrounding myself with poets and artists, I never have to come down."