Kenneth Irby

For other people with the same name, see Irby (disambiguation).

Kenneth Lee Irby (November 18, 1936 – July 30, 2015) was an American poet. He won a 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.

He is sometimes associated with the Black Mountain poets, especially with Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Ed Dorn.

He was born in Bowie, Texas, and In 1940 he moved to Fort Scott, Kansas with his family. He graduated from the University of Kansas, from Harvard University with an A.M., and from the University of California, Berkeley with a M.L.S. degree. From 1971-1975 he taught in the English department at Tufts University.[1] He was a visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen on a Fulbright grant. Irby's last role was as a professor of English at the University of Kansas.

A colloquium held at the University of Kansas on November 5, 2011 honored Irby's work, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Contributions were made by fellow poets Joseph Harrington, Denise Low, Benjamin Friedlander, Pierre Joris, and Lyn Hejinian.

He died on 30 July 2015 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Works

• Studies, First Intensiy Press, 2001,
• Ridge to Ridge, Other Wind Press, 2001,
• Antiphonal and Fall to Fall, Kavyayantra Press, 1994
• Call Steps, Station Hill/Tansy, 1992; Midpoint Trade Books Inc, 1997,
• Orexis, Station Hill, 1981,
• Catalpa, Tansy Press, 1977
• Archipelago, Tuumba Press, 1976
• To Max Douglas, Tansy Peg Leg Press, 1974
• Relation: poems, 1965-1966, Black Sparrow, 1970.
• The flower of having passed through paradise in a dream: poems, 1967, Kelly, 1968

External links

• "Kenneth Irby", Penn Sound
• University of Buffalo review of Irby's poems
• Arcturus Editions: by Kenneth Irby
• Kenneth Irby at Poets & Writers