13 Facts About Kenward Elmslie

Kenward Gray Elmslie was an American author, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.

Kenward Gray Elmslie was born to William Gray Elmslie and Constance Pulitzer in Manhattan on April 27,1929.

Kenward Elmslie's father was a tutor who met his mother, the youngest child of Joseph Pulitzer, while working as a tutor for her siblings.

Kenward Elmslie relocated to Cleveland to work as an intern at Karamu House, where there was an interracial theatre group.

At Latouche's invitation, Elmslie relocated back to New York in 1952 to live with him.

Kenward Elmslie kept the property, which served as his summer home for the rest of his life and, beginning during the 1970s, as the office for Kenward Elmslie's Z Press.

Kenward Elmslie began his career collaborating with composers for operas and musicals in an attempt to bring a contemporary style to classical theater.

Kenward Elmslie's first published poem, "Letter from Eldorado," appeared in the magazine Folder in 1956.

Kenward Elmslie later published more than thirty books of poetry and prose, and hundreds of poems in journals and anthologies.

Kenward Elmslie was awarded the National Endowment of the Arts Award for The Power Plant Sestina and the Ford Foundation Grant, as well as the Project for Innovative Poetry's Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry, and an award from the National Council of the Arts.

In 1973, Kenward Elmslie was asked to edit an issue of The World, the literary journal of the Poetry Project at St Marks in New York.

Kenward Elmslie decided he wanted to edit something more permanent, and instead initiated Z Magazine and Z Press, acting as the press' editor and publisher.

Kenward Elmslie died at his home in West Village neighborhood of New York City on June 29,2022, at the age of 93.