Jennifer L. Knox (*1968) is an American poet.
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Born in Lancaster, California, she received her BA from the University of Iowa, and her MFA in poetry writing from New York University. She has taught poetry writing at Hunter College and New York University.[1]
Her poetry has appeared in the following anthologies: The Best American Poetry (2011, 2006, 2003 and 1997); The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present; Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to Present and Free Radicals: American Poets before Their First Books.
Her first book of poems, A Gringo Like Me, was published in 2005 by Soft Skull Press. A second edition was in printed in 2007 by Bloof Books.[2] Her second book of poems, Drunk by Noon, was published in 2007 by Bloof Books.[2] Her third book of poems, The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, also published by Bloof Books in 2010.[3]
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Jennifer L. Knox grew up in the Mojave Desert. Her father was an accountant and mother, a speech therapist. Her father was from Nova Scotia, and being from Nova Scotia she explains he had a very satirical sense of humor, Nova Scotians share the British love of understated, self-deprecating satire. In junior high she played the clarinet and was voted Class Clown.[4]
In Poet's Bookshelf II, Knox names poets Richard Hugo, Denis Johnson, James Galvin (poet), Wallace Stevens and James Tate (writer), and fiction writers Italo Calvino and Kenzaburō Ōe as great influences.[5] She has also cited Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene, Thomas Berger (novelist), Kōbō Abe and Karen Blixen as being highly influential.
Her childhood influences include, Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes, Woody Allen’s Without Feathers and Side Effects, and the work of Jacques Tati. Also Knox says, "I adore Warner Bros. Cartoons, especially their timing and sidelong glances when someone realizes they’re screwed—that little 'ahoh.' I love the way they straddle high and low culture—just like Warner Brothers cartoons. I went to school out in the middle of the desert—our teachers were paid less than RTD bus drivers. I didn’t learn about The Barber of Seville in music class—I learned about it through a parody of it," says Knox. [6]
The poetry of Jennifer L. Knox is very bold and real. Her poems are filled with humor, pop culture, and quite frequently, profanity. She delves into the pop culture of modern America today without censorship. Even with this saucy and savvy writing style, Knox makes use of strong diction, hyperboles, and metaphors.
Her poems are an almost indescribable mix of crazed humor and sympathetic imagination, always provocative and even moving.What's striking about Knox's work is that she seems willing to say almost anything, which sounds like it could be self-indulgent but which in her hands turns into a powerful, idiosyncratic account of American culture. [7] She has described her reader as "a man, dressed like a woman, is over 40 but wider than a mile, 9 feet tall, all that, is a Camaro owner ... happily answers all telephone surveys" [8] Her work appeals to a variety of audiences.
"In workshops, my poems were often described as “sarcastic” and “ironic”—but neither label ever made sense to me. I’m not being sarcastic, and irony is, like, The Gift of the Magi, right?"[9] She has since been described to employ Menippean satire.[10]
Knox has been compared to comedian Sarah Silverman, artist Jeff Koons, a 10-year-old who can’t keep her mouth shut, and cartoonist Robert Crumb. None of these equations is quite right, however. Jennifer L. Knox’s work is unmistakably her own: darkly hilarious, surprisingly empathetic, utterly original.[11]
Jennifer L. Knox is the only thing standing between the average reader of poetry in America today and a full-scale unraveling of every principle held dear by generations of sorry excuses for subjects-of-the-enunciation not worth the poorly landscaped space they take up with their pathetic, fetid meat-selves. And that, depending on which end of the speculum is violating your mirror phase, is very nearly a good thing.[12]
A Gringo Like Me (2005) Borrowing its title from an Ennio Morricone ditty in the spaghetti western Gunfight at Red Sands, Jennifer L. Knox’s A Gringo Like Me contains poems at once raucous and sexy, tender and high. In favorites such as “Hot Ass Poem,” “Cruising for Prostitutes,” and “Chicken Bucket,” Knox’s speakers appear ornery, hickish, undereducated, misogynist, or worse, but each quirky character manages to elucidate a truth we’re better off knowing, even if we’d rather forget it. In A Gringo Like Me, Knox roughrides her muse at full gallop, shouting obscene slogans, bits of jokes, and sweet nothings at the top of her lungs along the way.[13]
Drunk By Noon (2007) "This second book from Knox, a young New York poet, continues the playful romp through the warped Americana she began in her debut, A Gringo Like Me. Here, Knox gives voice to wayward teens, drug-addled sages and fat dogs fantasizing about killing babies—among other unsavory characters—through dramatic monologues and quick narrative sketches. Fascination with the down-and-out lurks behind Knox's layers of irony and comic distance."[14] from Publishers Weekly
The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway (2010) In The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, Jennifer L. Knox expands on her inimitable cast of characters, in hilariously poignant poems. In poems like "Marriage" and "One Ton of Dirt," Knox ventures further into autobiographical territory than she's ever gone before ... exploring relationships with her exes, her parents, and her younger self.[15]
Captain Cook Returns (TK) An online interview conducted in September 2010 stated she is working on her first novel, tentatively titled, Captain Cook Returns.[16]