A poem by this poet

Kenneth Koch

1925-2002

Kenneth Koch was the author of numerous collections of poems, short stories, essays, and avant-garde plays. Born in 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Koch received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and later his Ph.D. from Columbia University. While a student at Harvard, Koch met Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery. In the 1950s, the three moved to New York City; they would become known as the New York School of poets. In 1994, Koch published two books of poetry, One Train and On the Great Atlantic Railway, both of which earned him the Bollingen Prize the following year. Koch was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Frank O’Hara Prize, a National Institute of Arts and Letters award, and a Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. He received a National Book Critics Circle nomination for One Thousand Avant-garde Plays, and his book of poetry, New Addresses, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Koch taught at Rutgers University and Brooklyn College and was the Director of the Poetry Workshop of the New School for Social Research. From 1959, Koch taught at Columbia University, becoming a full professor of English in 1971. Koch died of leukemia in July 2002.