X. J. Kennedy (born Joseph Charles Kennedy on August 21, 1929, in Dover, New Jersey) is an American poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and author of children's literature and textbooks on English literature and poetry. He was long known as Joe Kennedy; but, wishing to distinguish himself from Joseph P. Kennedy, he added an "X" as his first initial. [1]
In his youth, under the name Joe Kennedy, he was an active member of science fiction fandom and published well-regarded fanzines, including Vampire (a quarterly, 1945–1947) and the Vampire Annuals. He was a member of several amateur press associations, and co-founded the still-extant Spectator Amateur Press Association (SAPS). [2] Between 1947 and 1953 he wrote science fiction stories for pulp magazines using the names Joe Kennedy or Joquel Kennedy. [3]
Kennedy attended Seton Hall University (BSc, 1950) and Columbia University (MA, 1951). After serving for four years as an enlisted journalist with the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, he studied at the Sorbonne from 1955 to 1956. Kennedy then spent the next six years pursuing a graduate degree in English at the University of Michigan but did not complete his Ph.D. There he met his future wife Dorothy Mintzlaff, who was a fellow graduate student.
Kennedy taught English at Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Tufts University (1963–1978), with visiting professorships at Wellesley College; the University of California, Irvine; and the University of Leeds.
In the early 1970s, Kennedy and his wife Dorothy co-edited the influential journal Counter/Measures , a precursor in the New Formalist movement to The Reaper and The Formalist. He also served as poetry editor of The Paris Review . Kennedy's poetry has been published in The New Yorker , Poetry , and The Hudson Review . He became a freelance writer in 1978.
Kennedy is most recognized for his light verse, and was the first recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Michael Braude Award for Light Verse. His first book, Nude Descending a Staircase, won the 1961 Lamont Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets, and his dozens of books have won awards, including Guggenheim and National Arts Council fellowships, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award for poetry (in 1985 for Cross Ties: Selected Poems), the 1969-1970 Shelley Memorial Award, the Golden Rose of the New England Poetry Club, honorary degrees from Lawrence and Adelphi Universities and Westfield State College. Kennedy received the National Council of Teachers of English Year 2000 Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry. He received the 2004 Poets' Prize for his work, The Lords of Misrule: Poems 1992-2002. Kennedy accepted the Poetry Society of America's Robert Frost Medal for lifetime service to poetry in 2009. In 2015, he received the Jackson Poetry Prize, awarded by Poets & Writers. [4]
Kennedy also wrote a series of children's poetry books (Brats), translated Aristophanes' Lysistrata into English, and edited the anthology Tygers of Wrath: Poems of Hate, Anger, and Invective (University of Georgia Press, 1981). Kennedy edited several editions of the textbook anthology Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. With his wife Dorothy and scholar Jane E. Aaron, he is the editor of The Bedford Reader , a collegiate literature textbook used for teaching to the AP English Language and Composition test.
Kennedy has had five children and six grandchildren with his wife Dorothy Mintzlaff Kennedy (1931-2018), [5] and he resides in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Each year of first publication or revised edition links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article, for poetry, or "[year] in literature" article, for plays and prose:
All but Literature: An Introduction (1976) are intended as college texts but have been used by high school students:
Each year of first publication or revised edition links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article, for poetry, or "[year] in literature" article, for prose:
Elizabeth Joan Jennings was an English poet.
Michael Dana Gioia is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist.
New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels and regain its former popularity among the American people.
Suji Kwock Kim is a Korean American poet-playwright.
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a novelistic manner.
David Mason is an American writer and the former Poet Laureate of Colorado.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Jared Carter is an American poet and editor.
The Poets' Prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. The $3000 annual prize is donated by a committee of about 20 American poets, who each nominate two books and who also serve as judges. The Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City hosts the annual awards reception in May, which includes readings by the winner and finalists. The founders of the prize were Robert McDowell, Frederick Morgan, and Louis Simpson. The current co-chairs of the prize committee are Robert Archambeau and Marc Vincenz.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Ed Bok Lee is an American poet and writer. He is the author of three books of poetry, including Mitochondrial Night (2019), Whorled, the recipient of a 2012 American Book Award and a 2012 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, and Real Karaoke People, the recipient of a 2006 PEN/Open Book Award and a 2006 Asian American Literary Award.
Barbara Howes was an American poet.
Janet S. Wong is an American poet and author of children's books. She has written over 30 books, primarily poetry, picture books, and middle grade fiction. At the age of seven, she had an active imagination. She used this later in her life to write poetry and books. She is the co-creator of The Poetry Friday Anthology series and the Poetry Friday Power Book series, published by Pomelo Books. Her most recent book is HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving, an anthology of 100 poems by 90 poets that focuses on the topics of movement, the pandemic, and social justice. She is the winner of the 2021 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, a lifetime achievement award considered the most prestigious award that a children's poet can receive.
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