X. J. Kennedy
Poet X. J. (Joseph Charles) Kennedy was born in Dover, New Jersey, on August 21, 1929. He added the initial “X” to his given name to distinguish himself from the patriarch of the famous Kennedy family, Joseph Kennedy, Sr. After studying at Seton Hall, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, he served for four years in the United States Navy’s Atlantic Fleet as a journalist, then attended the Sorbonne in Paris for one year in 1955.
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, 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.
In the early 1970s, Kennedy and his wife published Counter/Measures, a magazine devoted to the use of traditional form in poetry. He is also a former poetry editor of The Paris Review. Kennedy taught at the Universities of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University of California, Irvine, as well as Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Leeds.
Kennedy died on February 1, 2026, at his home in Peabody, Massachusetts.