David Kirby (poet)

David Kirby (born 1944) is an American poet and the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University (FSU).

Kirby obtained his Ph.D. in 1969 from Johns Hopkins University. He lives with his wife and fellow poet Barbara Hamby in Tallahassee, Florida. Kirby has taught at FSU's international campuses in Florence, Paris, Valencia, and elsewhere.

Kirby has published over 20 books, including collections of poetry, and literary criticism. His book, The Ha-Ha was chosen one of ten "Best Books of 2003" by Boston Globe critic Clea Simon,^[1] and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. His work has won numerous awards, including four Pushcart Prizes, the James Dickey Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

[edit] Honors and awards

Saving the Young Men of Vienna. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
Writing Poetry: Where Poems Come from and How to Write Them. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1989.
Mark Strand and the Poet's Place in Contemporary Culture. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990.
Herman Melville. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1993.
Big Leg Music. Alexandria, Virginia: Orchises, 1995.
My Twentieth Century. Alexandria, Virginia: Orchises, 1999.
The House of Blue Light. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.
The Traveling Library. Alexandria, Virginia: Orchises, 2001.
What is a Book? Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2002.
The Ha-Ha. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.
The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems by David Kirby. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. (forthcoming)

Halliday, Mark. "Gabfest." Parnassus: Poetry in Review. 26 (2002), 203–215.
Kent, Valerie. "A Conversation with David Kirby." The Chattahoochee Review, 9 (Spring 1989), 1–13.
Klappert, Peter. "The Invention of the Kirby Poem." The Southern Review, 36 (Winter 2000), 196ff.
Reichert, Stephen. "An Interview with David Kirby." Arkansas Review, 32 (December 2001), 184–189.