Galway Kinnell
Galway Kinnell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 1, 1927 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 2014 (aged 87) Sheffield, Vermont, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Education | Princeton University (BA) University of Rochester (MA) |
| Notable awards | National Book Award (1983) Pulitzer Prize (1983) |
| Spouse | Barbara Bristol |
| Website | |
| galwaykinnell | |
Galway Mills Kinnell (February 1, 1927 – October 28, 2014) was an American poet. His dark poetry emphasized scenes and experiences in threatening, ego-less natural environments. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry[1] for his 1982 collection, Selected Poems and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright.[2] From 1989 to 1993, he was poet laureate for the state of Vermont.
Although exploring arguably darker themes, Kinnell has been regarded as being in line with Walt Whitman in his rejection of the idea of seeking personal fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His most celebrated and commonly anthologized poems include the poem cycle The Book of Nightmares, as well as "St. Francis and the Sow", "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps", and "Wait".[3]
Biography
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Kinnell said that as a youth he became interested in the poetry of American dark Romantics such as Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, drawn to both the musical appeal of their poetry and the allure of their use of language which spoke to what he later described as the homogeneous feel of his hometown, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He also described himself as being an introvert in his adolescence, which scholars have compared to the aforementioned authors' histories of leading solitary lives.[4]
Kinnell studied at
Kinnell has been published in Beloit Poetry Journal. From 1989 to 1993 he was poet laureate for the state of Vermont.[8]
Kinnell was the
Work
While much of Kinnell's work has been regarded as dealing with social issues, it is by no means confined to one subject. Some critics have pointed to the spiritual dimensions of his poetry, as well as the natural imagery present throughout his work.[10] For instance, "The Fundamental Project of Technology" deals with all three of those elements, creating an eerie, chant-like and surreal exploration of the horrors atomic weapons inflict on humanity and nature. Kinnell occasionally utilized simple and brutal images ("Lieutenant! / This corpse will not stop burning!" from "The Dead Shall be Raised Incorruptible" in The Book of Nightmares) to convey his anger at the destructiveness of humanity, informed by his activism and love of nature. Scholars have also identified, on the contrary, themes of optimism and beauty in his use of language, especially in the large role animals and children have in his later work, evident in poems such as "Daybreak" and "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps".[11]
In addition to his works of poetry and his translations, Kinnell published one novel (Black Light, 1966) and one children's book (How the Alligator Missed Breakfast, 1982).
Kinnell wrote two elegies for his close friend, the poet James Wright, upon the latter's death in 1980. They appear in From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright.
Kinnell's poem The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students was excerpted in Delia Owens’ novel Where the Crawdads Sing, as a goodbye note left by the protagonist’s mother who left her at a young age.
Personal
Kinnell married Inés Delgado de Torres, a Spanish translator, in 1965 — naming their two children, Fergus and Maud, after figures in Yeats. They divorced after 20 years of marriage. He married Barbara Kammer Bristol in 1997. He had two grandchildren.[9]
Death
Kinnell died October 28, 2014, at his home in Sheffield, Vermont, at the age of 87. The cause was leukemia according to his wife, Barbara K. Bristol.[9]
Bibliography
 |
Poetry
Collections
- What a Kingdom It Was. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1960.
- Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock. Houghton Mifflin. 1964.
- Body Rags. Houghton Mifflin. 1968. UK edition: Rapp & Whiting, 1969 (Poetry USA series).
- The Book of Nightmares. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1971. ISBN 978-0-395-12098-9.
Galway Kinnell.
- The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World: Poems 1946–64. Houghton Mifflin. 1974.
- "Saint Francis and the Sow" No Mountains Poetry Project Broadside Series (1976)
- Walking Down the Stairs (a collection of interviews) (1978).
- Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. Houghton Mifflin. 1980. ISBN 978-0-395-29125-2.
- Blackberry Eating. William B. Ewert. 1980.
- Selected Poems. Houghton Mifflin. 1982.
- How the Alligator Missed Breakfast. Illustrator Lynn Munsinger. Houghton Mifflin. 1982. ISBN 978-0-395-32436-3.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link - The Past. Houghton Mifflin. 1985. ISBN 978-0-395-39385-7.
- When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone. Knopf. 1990. ISBN 978-0-394-58856-8.
- Three Books. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2002. ISBN 978-0-618-21911-7.
- Imperfect Thirst. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1996. ISBN 978-0-395-75528-0.
- A New Selected Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2000.
- The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World: Poems 1953–1964. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2002. ISBN 978-0-618-21912-4.
- Strong Is Your Hold. Houghton Mifflin. 2006. ISBN 978-0-618-22497-5.
- Collected Poems. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017. ISBN 978-0-544-87521-0.
- Translated collections
- Yves Bonnefoy (1968). On the motion and immobility of Douve. Translator Galway Kinnell. Ohio University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-87451-236-6.
- Yvan Goll (1970). Lackawanna Elegy. Translator Galway Kinnell. Sumac Press. ISBN 978-0-912090-07-8.
- Yvan Goll (1968). Yvan Goll, Selected Poems. Translators Paul Zweig, Jean Varda, Robert Bly, George Hitchcock, Galway Kinnell. Kayak Books.
- ISBN 978-0-06-095654-7.
Poems
| Title | Year | First published in | Reprinted/collected in |
|---|---|---|---|
| I, Coyote, stilled wonder | 2013 | The New Yorker 88/43 (January 14, 2013) | |
| The silence of the world | 2013 | The New Yorker 89/13 (May 13, 2013) |
Novels
- Black Light. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
References
- ^ a b "Poetry". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
- ^ a b
"National Book Awards - 1983". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
(With essay by Eric Smith from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) - ISBN 978-0-472-06376-5.
- ^ The Poetry Foundation, Galway Kinnell, 1927–2014, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/galway-kinnell
- ^ Press release of November 8, 2000, from the University of Rochester
- ^ "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 New York Post
- ^ Poets.org
- ^ a b Smith College press release
- ^ a b c Daniel Lewis (October 29, 2014). "Galway Kinnell, Poet Who Went His Own Way, Dies at 87". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
- ^ Modern Poets
- ^ Poetry Archive
- ^ "National Book Awards - 2000". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
Further reading
- Conesa-Sevilla, J. (2008). Dreaming With Bear (Kinnell's Poem). Ecopsychology Symposium at the 25th Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, Montreal, July 11.
External links
- Galway Kinnell at IMDb
- Poems by Kinnell and biography at PoetryFoundation.org
- "Interview with Galway Kinnell by Mike Edgerly on Minnesota Public Radio" MPR Interview
- "The loveliness of pigs: Galway Kinnell searches for the real beauty" interview and poem "Daybreak" on the Christian Science Monitor
- Cortland Review Archived 2020-07-23 at the Wayback Machine interview and poem "The Fundamental Project of Technology"
- "Galway Kinnell reads 'Wait' " for the WGBH series, New Television Workshop
- " 'Since you asked..,' with Galway Kinnell for the WGBH series, *New Television Workshop
- Profile and poems at Academy of American Poets
- 1988 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech
- Modern American Poetry short biography
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1976–2000) | ||
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