 |
|
 |
 |
About The Author
Craig Conley has been called “a monk for the modern age” (George Parker), “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” (Clint Marsh) and “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation” (Encarta). He is a curator, benefactor, philosopher, author, music producer, and documentarian. A former college teacher of writing and literature, he left academia to pursue his research into one-letter words, two-fold deities, and ancient Zen versions of Rock-Paper-Scissors. In addition to his Magic Words: A Dictionary and One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, he has written several educational titles, including four editions of the textbook Human Diversity: A Guide for Understanding, published by McGraw-Hill. His latest documentary, “David Lynch and His Precursors,” traces the avant-garde filmmaker’s influence through time, to movies that predate Lynch’s own body of work. Philosopher and magician Lawrence Hass writes: “If David Lynch and Jorge Luis Borges created a book the result would be something very much like the writings of Craig Conley. As with those artists, Craig’s work creates truly remarkable and subtle effects. His books are ones to dream with and learn from.”
 Conley is a visionary thinker. In 1999 he developed a new system of musical notation called “Do-Re-Midi,” allowing musical ideas, melody lines, riffs, arrangements, and even full scores to be easily shared via e-mail or other text-based English communication, with no special composing software or music font required. Novices can read Do-Re-Midi more easily than standard musical notation, as no more than a rudimentary familiarity with the musical scale is requisite.
Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. Conley’s virtual pet was actually a rare flower that needed the proper water, light, fertilizer, and TLC in a computer game entitled “Florist.” He is pleased to report that his virtual flower is still flourishing and has in fact grown to a nearly incomprehensible size, though he cautions that “If the seed pod were to fall in the real world, we’d be facing a major catastrophe. Truly devastating.”
He resides in Florida and California.
s o l u t i o n @ p o b o x . c o m
Published Works
Craig Conley has been described as:
- “A monk for the modern age.” —George Parker, author of The Little Book of Creativity
- “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation” —Encarta
- “A cult hero” —Publisher’s Weekly
- “A language fanatic” —Cindy Adams, Page Six
- “Professor of Paradox and Impossibility” —Gary Barwin, author of Yiddish for Pirates
- “Poetic prince of arcana” —Russ Hugo of Cuddlebot
- “A genius talent” —Martha Brockenbrough, Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar
- “So just plain amazing” —Derek Beaulieu, Calgary
- “A brilliant lexicographer” —Bernie DeKoven, author of The Well-Played Game
- “The ultimate man of letters” —Harvard Book Store
- “A literary mind” —Step Inside Design Magazine
- “Brother of nothing, shadow of silence, synonym of infinite possibility.” —Gary Barwin
- “Illustrious” —Jeff Hawkins
- “Ingenious” —Print Magazine
- “An extraordinary researcher” —Henderson Gleaner Newspaper
- “Inspired” —Bruce Rutledge, Chin Music Press
- “An obsessive researcher” —Tony Miksak, KZYX Radio
- “Enigmatic” —ArtLung Blog
- “A visionary thinker” —Quantum Unlimited
- “Whimsical” —The Dictionary Society of North America
- “Mind blowing” —Heather Perkins, Sonoma County KOWS FM Radio
- “A wonder worker” —Kenton Knepper, author of Wonder Words
- A “one-of-a-kind” absurdist with “‘innocent appearing’ supttering wit” —Julie von der Ropp, Echidna Press
- “One of the most original, fascinating, entertaining guys in the world ... I kid you not” —Janet Boyer, author of Tarot in Reverse
- One who “uses the language as Salvador Dali used paint” —Natasha K., voice artist
"One Letter Words Monkey," by Adam Koford. The artist explains that the one letter words depicted here (and probably indecipherable without this guide) include:
M: as in medium t-shirt
O: as in oxygen
N: as in the planet Neptune
K: as in vitamin K (the pill in the foreground)
E: as in E!
and Y: as in Alaska.
|
Conley’s work has been profiled in:
Conley’s work has been awarded by:
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Copyright © 2025 Craig Conley
|
