Kevin Killian: Difference between revisions

| alma_mater = [[Fordham University]], <br> [[Stonybrook University]]

'''Kevin Killian''' (December 24, 1952 – June 15, 2019)<ref name="Mixed">{{Cite web|last=Bellamy|first=Dodie|date=June 20, 2000|title=My Mixed Marriage|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2000/06/20/my-mixed-marriage/|url-status=live|website=Village Voice}}</ref> was an American [[Poetry|poet]], [[author]], editor, and [[playwright]], primarily of [[LGBT literature]].<ref>David Bergman. "Do We Need a Gay Literature?" ''[[The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide]].'' January–February 2010, p. 25; "Stars and Rainbows." ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' June 22, 2001, p. 5.</ref><ref name="BestBooks2008" /> ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with [[Peter Gizzi]], won the [[American Book Award]] for poetryPoetry in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |author=American Booksellers Association |title=The American Book Awards&nbsp;/&nbsp;Before Columbus Foundation [1980–2012] |year=2013 |url=http://www.bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html |work=BookWeb |quote='''''2009''''' [...] ''Gizzi and '''Kevin Killian''''' (Wesleyan University Press) |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313174235/http://bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html |archivedate=March 13, 2013 |accessdate=September 25, 2013}}</ref>

Killian was also co-founder of the Poets Theater, an influential poetry, stage, and performance group based in [[San Francisco]], as well as the [[New Narrative]] movement in San Francisco, which included figures like [[Robert Glück]], Bruce Boone, [[Kathy Acker]], [[Dennis Cooper]], and more.<ref name="Pohl">Pohl, R.D. "Poets Theater at Burchfield Penney Art Center." ''Buffalo News.'' April 2, 2009.</ref>

Kevin Killian was born on December 24, 1952, in [[Smithtown, New York|Smithtown]], [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Kevin Killian (1952–2019)|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/kevin-killian-1952-2019-80115|access-date=2021-05-14|website=www.artforum.com|date=17 June 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref> He was raised [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] and attended a Roman Catholic [[parochial school]] run by [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] friars.<ref>Wiegand, David and Holt, Patricia. "Books in Brief." ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' June 18, 1995.</ref> He discussed these experiences in an essay in the edited work ''Wrestling with the Angel''.<ref>''Wrestling with the Angel: Faith and Religion in the Lives of Gay Men.'' Brian Bouldrey, ed. Reprint ed. New York: Riverhead Trade, 1996.</ref> He was also the [[New York City]] [[spelling bee]] champion.<ref>Carroll, Jon. "Jon Carroll." ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' May 22, 2008.</ref> He attended [[Fordham University]] and graduate school at [[Stony Brook University]] in the 1970s.<ref name=":0" />

Killian moved to San Francisco in 1980.<ref>[http://www.raintaxi.com/reviving-jack-spicer-an-interview-with-kevin-killian/ Bradshaw, Joseph. "Reviving Jack Spicer: An Interview with Kevin Killian."] ''Rain Taxi.'' Winter 2008. Accessed 2010-05-29.</ref> A year later in 1981, he met fellow author [[Dodie Bellamy]], both are [[Bisexuality|bisexual]].<ref name="Mixed" /><ref name=":0" /> The couple, both [[Bisexuality|bisexual]], were married for 34 years.<ref name="Mixed" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Buuck|first=David|date=January 1, 2014|title=Dodie Bellamy by David Buuck|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/dodie-bellamy/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-14|website=BOMB Magazine}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

As a beginning novelist, Killian tied for first place in the "Hamming Up Hammett" [[Dashiell Hammett]] bad-writing contest in [[San Francisco]] in 1988.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OnwUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-wIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2093,220439&dq=kevin-killian&hl=en "Would-Be Writers with Style, Dash Hammett Up in Contest."] ''[[Toledo Blade]]''. November 1, 1988.</ref> Author Dodie Bellamy featured him as a partially fictional character in her [[Vampire literature|vampire]] novel]] ''The Letters of Mina Harker''.<ref>Benderson, Bruce. "Book Review: ''The Letters of Mina Harker''." ''[[The Village Voice]].'' April 14, 1998.</ref> His poetry has appeared in the [[anthology]] ''[[The Best American Poetry 1988]] 1988'', the magazine ''Discontents'', and the anthology ''Good Times: Bad Trips''.<ref>Gilbert, Matthew. "Book Review: ''The Best American Poetry 1988''." ''[[Boston Globe]].'' January 27, 1989; Harmanci, Reyhan. "Flip That Bad Trip." ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' September 13, 2007.</ref> Killian once based a volume of poetry on the work of [[horror film]] director [[Dario Argento]]<ref>Dark, Jane. "Fever Pitch." ''The Village Voice.'' August 13, 2002.</ref> (motivated to do so as a response to the [[AIDS]] epidemic). Killian also helped author [[Alvin Orloff]] polish chapters of his novel ''Gutterboys''.<ref>Ford, Dave. "Author Hangs Onto His Mad Cap As He Captures '80s Gay Scene in 'Gutterboys'." ''San Francisco Chronicle.'' August 13, 2004.</ref> Noted author [[Edmund White]] described his work as "a kind of mandarin American casualness that is peculiar to … West Coast writers … a school of refined but deceptively offhand stylists."<ref>White, Edmund. "Sex and the City." ''[[The New York Times]].'' February 21, 1999.</ref> ''The Village Voice'' called ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with [[Peter Gizzi]], "impeccably edited".<ref name="BestBooks2008">"The Best Books of 2008." ''The Village Voice.'' December 10, 2008.</ref> The work was also highly praised by ''The New York Times.''<ref>Garner, Dwight. "Sometimes Love Lives Alongside Loneliness." ''New York Times.'' December 24, 2008.</ref>

Killian's 2009 collection of short gay erotic fiction ''Impossible Princess'' won the [[Lambda Literary FoundationAwards|Lambda Literary Award]] for best[[Lambda gayLiterary men'sAward eroticafor Erotica|Gay Erotica]].<ref>"22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards." [[Lambda Literary Awards]]</ref> The first story in the collection, "Young Hank Williams,", was written with Canadian cult writer [[Derek McCormack (writer)|Derek McCormack]].<ref>"[https://vimeo.com/5633347 Derek McCormack & Kevin Killian, 7-14-09]". [[Vimeo]]</ref> The collection was inspired by [[Kylie Minogue]]'s [[Impossible Princess|album of the same name]] and, in turn, it inspired [[Conrad Tao]]'s piano composition "All I Had Forgotten Oror Tried To".<ref>[https://www.92y.org/archives/conrad-taos-forgotten-tried-2017 "Conrad Tao's 'All I Had Forgotten Or Tried To' (2017)"], [[92nd Street Y]], January 25, 2019</ref>

Killian was founder and former director of [[Small Press Traffic]].<ref>Schwartz, Stephen. "Alternative S.F. Bookstore Hits Tough Times." ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]].'' August 27, 1992.</ref> He also edited the [[poetry]] [['zine]] ''Mirage''.<ref>Feinstein, Lea. "Twenty-Five Artists, Five Spaces, Five Weeks, and a Multitude of Visions." ''SF Weekly.'' July 26, 2006.</ref>

Killian's interest in theatre emerged in the early 1980s when he saw experimental plays by [[Carla Harryman]].<ref name="Cook">Cook, David. "The Poets Theater Jubilee Brings Verse to the Stage." ''SF Weekly.'' January 23, 2002.</ref> Harryman and [[Tom Mandel (poet)|Tom Mandel]] subsequently cast him in their play ''Fist of the Colossus''.<ref name="Sullivan">[http://home.jps.net/~nada/killian.htm Sullivan, Gary. "Kevin Killian: Interview." ''readme.'' Spring/Summer 2001.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903003318/http://home.jps.net/~nada/killian.htm |date=2009-09-03 }} Accessed 2010-05-29.</ref> He co-founded the Poets Theater in San Francisco,<ref name="Pohl" /> and acted in as well as wrote pieces for the group.<ref name="Cook" /> As of 2001, he had written 31 plays.<ref name="Sullivan" /> He co-authored the [[performance art]] piece ''The Red and the Green'' in 2005 with cinematographer Karla Milosevich.<ref>"Angel Street." ''[[The Oregonian]].'' September 2, 2005.</ref> In 2009, Killian and David Brazil co-edited a collection of Poets Theater pieces, ''The Kenning Anthology of Poets Theatre: 1945–1985.''<ref name="Pohl" />

* {{Cite book |title=Impossible Princess |date=2009-10-10 |publisher=City Lights Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=9780872865280 |language=en |url=https://archive.org/details/impossibleprince00kill}}

* {{Cite book |title=Shy |date=1989-04-01 |publisher=Crossing Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780895943484 |language=en}}

* {{Cite book |title=Arctic Summer |date=1997 |publisher=Hard Candy Books |isbn=9781563335143 |edition= 1st Hard Candy |location=New York |oclc=36715716}}

* {{Cite book |title=[[The Fellow Travelers series|Spreadeagle]] |date=2012 |publisher=Publication Studio |isbn=9781935662099 |location=Portland, Oregon |oclc=826657707}}