Other literary forms
Although known primarily as a poet, Galway Kinnell published the fable-like novel Black Light (1966, 1980), set in Iran, which chronicles how a carpetmaker’s act of heinous murder propels him on a dark journey toward spiritual awakening. In Walking Down the Stairs: Selections from Interviews (1978), Kinnell offers his opinions about other poets and his own work. How the Alligator Missed Breakfast (1982) is a children’s book. Kinnell has also published numerous translations, including those of works by René Hardy, François Villon, Yves Bonnefoy, Yvan Goll, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Numerous magazines and literary journals have published articles by Kinnell, several of which have been reprinted as book chapters.
Achievements
Galway Kinnell’s poetry has garnered an ever-increasing and appreciative audience among both critics and the public. In 1983, Kinnell’s Selected Poems earned for him the Pulitzer Prize in poetry as well as the National Book Award. His other awards include the Academy Award in Literature (1962) and the Award of Merit Medal (1975) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine (1965), the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets (1978), and the Shelley Memorial Award (1972) and the Frost Medal (2002) from the Poetry Society of America. A New Selected Poems was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received a Fulbright Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowships (1962, 1974), a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1968), a National Endowment for the Arts grant (1968-1970), and a MacArthur Fellowship (1984). He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1980. He has been the state poet of Vermont (1989-1993) and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (2001-2007).
Bibliography
Goldensohn, Lorrie. “Approaching Home Ground: Galway Kinnell’s Mortal Acts, Mortal Words.” Review of Mortal Acts, Mortal Worlds. Massachusetts Review 25 (Summer, 1984): 303-321. After unraveling several of Kinnell’s captured moments, Goldensohn lays them beside his professed philosophy and finds serious conflicts. Especially problematical, she points out, are the deficiencies in Kinnell’s treatment of women. Goldensohn’s feminist perspective provokes new questions and provides fresh insights.
Kirby, David. “On the Borderline.” The New York Times, November 26, 2006, p. 20. Kirby calls Kinnell “transrealmic” and compares him to the seventeenth century Metaphysical poets such as John Donne. He particularly praises the poems about his old age and his wife; Kirby writes that Kinnell walks a line between life and death, this world and the beyond. Kirby’s favorite poem is about having oatmeal with an imaginary John Keats, an illustration of Kinnell’s ability to elevate the ordinary into the exquisitely pleasurable.
Maceira, Karen. “Galway Kinnell: A Voice to Lead Us.” Hollins Critic 32, no. 4 (October, 1995): 1-15. Maceira takes the occasion of Imperfect Thirst to present a shrewd and sympathetic assessment of Kinnell’s growth as an artist.
Maecka, Katarzyna. Death in the Works of Galway Kinnell. Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria Press, 2008. An examination of how Kinnell treats death in his poetry. Looks at his philosophy of death and examines various works.
Nelson, Howard, ed. On the Poetry of Galway Kinnell: The Wages of Dying. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987. This indispensable book is a collection of excerpts from previously published book reviews and articles together with essays—overviews, appraisals, analyses of specific poems, and a particularly insightful reminiscence—written specifically for the project. Writers include Charles Molesworth, Louise Bogan, Harold Bloom, Donald Davie, Joseph Bruchac, and Tess Gallagher. A chronology and an extensive bibliography provide interesting and useful information.
Parini, Jay. “In Blackberry Time.” Review of Strong Is Your Hold. The Guardian, June 23, 2007, p. 18. Parini praises Strong Is Your Hold as continuing...
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Kinnell’s rich use of words and maintaining his artistic edge. He particularly likes the short lyrics, and like other critics, believes the best poems are the ones that exhibit tenderness. Unlike some other critics, however, he does not praise the longer poems. Parini finds the long poem “When the Towers Fell” to be unwieldy and lacking in unity, and the long poem “Pulling a Nail” to be unbalanced. Despite these reservations, Parini states that this book contains marvelous writing and that it enhances Kinnell’s poetic reputation.
Seaman, Donna. Review of Strong Is Your Hold. Booklist 103 (October 15, 2006): 17. This short review praises Strong Is Your Hold as containing “homey” poems. Nonetheless, Seaman finds the poems’ language and cumulative, substantive lines make the ordinary witty, fiery, and sometimes extremely powerful, as in “When theTowers Fell.”
Taylor, Granville. “From Irony to Lyricism: Galway Kinnell’s True Voice.” Christianity and Literature 37 (Summer, 1988): 45-54. Taylor explores Kinnell’s emphasis on immanence over transcendence and the evolution of his form of grace. For readers interested in reconciling Kinnell’s rejection of traditional Christian myths with orthodoxy, Taylor offers a solution.
Tuten, Nancy Lewis, ed. Critical Essays on Galway Kinnell. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. Morris Dickstein, Mary Kinzie, Jay Parini, and Richard Tillinghast are some of the powerhouse commentators whose responses to Kinnell’s work are gathered here. A judicious, balanced selection.
Zimmerman, Lee. Intricate and Simple Things: The Poetry of Galway Kinnell. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Zimmerman’s study is divided into five chapters, each of which focuses on one of Kinnell’s collections, ending with The Past, and an epilogue. Especially helpful are the author’s discussions of the oppositions that form the heart of Kinnell’s work, the literary context in which the work has evolved, and the effect on his message of the gradually increasing distance of the poet from his subject. Index.