X. J. Kennedy

Poet X. J. (Joseph Charles) Kennedy was born in Dover, New Jersey, on August 21, 1929. After studying at Seton Hall, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, he served four years in the United States Navy’s Atlantic Fleet as a journalist, then attended the Sorbonne in Paris for one year in 1955. In the early 1970s, he published Counter/Measures, a magazine devoted to the use of traditional form in poetry.

Kennedy’s first collection of poetry, Nude Descending a Staircase (Doubleday, 1961), won the Lamont Poetry Selection. His other collections include The Lords of Misrule: Poems, 1992–2001 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Cross Ties: Selected Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1985). He has also published numerous books for children, including more than ten collections of verse and two novels over two decades. Kennedy and his wife Dorothy have collaborated as editors on several textbooks, such as Knock at a Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry (Little, Brown & Company, 1999).

Kennedy’s other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Kennedy is a former poetry editor of The Paris Review. He has taught at the Universities of Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), and California (Irvine), as well as Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Leeds. He lives in Bedford, Massachusetts.