David Kirby

David Kirby’s illusionistic poetics are like a ha-ha, which is not a joke but a landscape trick – used to keep cows at a picturesque distance from the manor house. The formal appearance of this poet’s stanzaic patterns – so chaste and well-behaved and structurally deft – support the genial but disruptive spirit of these narrative performances.

David Kirby’s career at Florida State University has been framed by words – which is characteristic of the acclaimed scholar, national award-winning poet, author, reviewer, and current Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English. To honor the [50-year teaching] milestone, English Department chairman Gary Taylor announced the establishment of The David Kirby Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing.

Kirby, a talented and prolific poet and essayist and the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University, has been named the seventh recipient of the Florida Humanities Council’s Florida Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing.

Once again, Florida State University’s Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English—author or co-author of 29 books, hundreds of articles and individual poems, and dozens of book reviews for the New York Times—has landed on the short list for a major literary prize. Kirby has been selected as one of five finalists for the 2007 National Book Award for Poetry for his latest collection, The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems.

David Kirby’s career at Florida State University has been framed by words – which is characteristic of the acclaimed scholar, national award-winning poet, author, reviewer, and current Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English. To honor the [50-year teaching] milestone, English Department chairman Gary Taylor announced the establishment of The David Kirby Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing.