Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell, who died in October of 2014, wrote poems that snuck up on you—starting from their titles to opening lines, they often put the reader right in the middle of a circumstance, conversation, or event. Kinnell read here at the Folger on March 24, 2008. Listen to his poems “Everyone Was in Love” and “How Could She Not?” 

Kinnell published several volumes of poetry, including "Strong Is Your Hold"; "A New Selected Poems"; "Imperfect Thirst"; "When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone"; and "Selected Poems", for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Kinnell was the recipient of the 2010 Wallace Stevens Award for proven mastery in the art of poetry by the Academy of American Poets. His other honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, the 2002 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, the 1974 Shelley Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and the 1975 Medal of Merit from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. 

Published September 4, 2018. ©Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This recording was produced by Hayden Arp and Teri Cross-Davis. The music is ""Retrograde" by Hayden Arp. Ben Lauer is the web producer.

Galway Kinnell reads at the Folger

After over thirty years as the artistic director of Washington, DC’s Tony-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company, Michael Kahn is retiring. Kahn has directed Off-Off-Broadway, Off-Broadway, and on Broadway. He directed Measure for Measure for Joe Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park. He ran, at various points, the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, the McCarter Theatre, and the Acting Company. From 1992 – 2006, he was the Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School. As a director and as a teacher, Kahn has helped to usher in a new style of Shakespearean acting, one that combines the psychologically-grounded American “Method” with a British emphasis on text, tone, and technique. As Kahn opens The Orestia, the last production of his final season at Shakespeare Theatre Company, we brought him into the studio to talk about Shakespearean performance throughout the 20th century, Shakespeare’s continued relevance, and reading Shakespeare with his mother. Michael Kahn is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published April 30, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, ““I Am Able to Instruct or Teach,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. With technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Andrew Bates at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Meg McCluskey and Archie Moore at Clean Cuts studios in Washington, DC. Audio clips from Shakespeare Theatre Company productions are from the James A. Taylor Collection of WAPAVA at the University of Maryland.

Michael Kahn

Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places—not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us.

Michael Kahn

Folger Shakespeare Library

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