Gillian McCain

Gillian McCain (born January 1, 1966) is a Canadian poet, author, and photography collector best known for Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which she co-wrote with Legs McNeil. McCain is the author of two books of poetry: Tilt and Religion. Portions of her "found photo" collection have been featured in magazines, published as limited edition books, and exhibited at the Camera Club of New York gallery. She sat on the Board of Directors of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery New York City.

McCain was born in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada. She attended the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she earned a B.A in Literature. She moved to New York City in 1987 where she went on to complete a M.A. in Literature at New York University in 1990. In 1988, McCain studied in the Naropa Institute’s summer program.

Following her graduation from New York University, McCain was hired by the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, where she served as program coordinator (1991-1994), editor of the Poetry Project Newsletter (1994-1995), and edited four issues of the lit-zine Milk. In 1991 she founded the Friday Night Series—a weekly event that featured poetry, fiction, non-fiction, theme readings, tributes, lectures, performance art and music. In four years she brought in over four hundred artists. The series continues to this day. She devoted herself to writing full-time in 1995.

McCain married James Marshall, a writer, whom she met at the Poetry Project, in 2002.

In 1996, Grove Press published Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which McCain co-wrote with Legs McNeil. Composed of the excerpts from hundreds of interviews, Please Kill Me presents a unique view of a volatile and complex period in American history. The book spans the early-Punk period of the Velvet Underground through the rise and fall of Punk icons Iggy Pop, the Ramones, and more.

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