18 Facts About Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77.

Kenneth Koch was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry.

Kenneth Koch began writing poetry at an early age, discovering the work of Shelley and Keats in his teenage years.

Kenneth Koch was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996.

In 1962, Kenneth Koch was writer in residence at the New York City Writer's Conference at Wagner College.

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Kenneth Koch continued writing poetry and releasing books of poetry up until his death.

In 1970, Kenneth Koch released a pioneering book in poetry education, Wishes, Lies and Dreams: Teaching Children To Write Poetry.

Kenneth Koch wrote hundreds of avant-garde plays over the course of his 50-year career, highlighted by drama collections like 1000 Avant-Garde Plays, which only contains 116 plays, many of them only one scene or a few minutes in length.

Kenneth Koch published a book of short stories, Hotel Lambosa, loosely based on and inspired by his world travels.

Kenneth Koch produced at least one libretto, and several of his poems have been set to music by composers.

Kenneth Koch taught poetry at Columbia University, where his classes were popular.

Kenneth Koch's students included poets Ron Padgett, David Shapiro, Frank Lima, Alan Feldman, David Lehman, Jordan Davis, Jessy Randall, David Baratier, Loren Goodman, Carson Cistulli, and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch.

Kenneth Koch's poems were translated into German by the poet Nicolas Born in 1973 for the renowned "red-frame-series" of the Rowohlt Verlag.

Kenneth Koch asked in his poem Fresh Air why poets were writing about dull subjects with dull forms.

Kenneth Koch's ideas were developed with close friends Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery, along with painters Jane Freilicher and Larry Rivers, among others.

Kenneth Koch acknowledged this in an interview and offered his comments:.

Kenneth Koch gives a picture of this in "To Kidding Around, " where the joys of being a joker are proclaimed:.

Kenneth Koch collaborated with the composer Ned Rorem on an opera, Bertha, which received its premier in 1973.