Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch (February, 27 1925 – July 6, 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and teacher.

As a student at Harvard University, Koch met fellow students Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery. With them and others in the 1950s, he was part of what people called The New York School, a loose group of poets and painters. At Harvard, he received a bachelor of arts degree. Then he attended Columbia University for his PhD..

He taught at Columbia University. He thought about how to teach children and older people to write poetry. He explained these ways in books like Wishes, Lies and Dreams; Rose, Where Did You Get That Red; and I Never Told Anybody.

He was known for using much humor in his poems.

New Addresses (2000) was a finalist for the National Book Award. One Train and On the Great Atlantic Rainway, Selected Poems 1950–1988 both earned him the Bollingen Prize in 1995. He won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry in 1996. He was given three Fulbright scholarships and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Books
Poems (1953)
Ko: or, A Season on Earth (1959)
Thank You and Other Poems (1962)
Bertha, & other plays (1966)
The Pleasures of Peace and Other Poems (1969)
When the Sun Tries to Go On (1969)
Wishes, Lies and Dreams: Teaching Children To Write Poetry (1970)
The Art of Love (1975)
The Duplications (1977)
The Burning Mystery of Anna in 1951 (1979)
On the Edge (1986)
Seasons on Earth (1987)
1000 Avant-Garde Plays (1988)
One Train (1994)
I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing to Old People (1997)
Straits (1998)
New Addresses (2000)
A Possible World (2002)

 Related pages 
List of poets from North America

References

Other websites
Kenneth Koch at PennSound

Category:1925 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:American poets
Category:American playwrights
Category:American teachers