Photo by Dodie Bellamy
Kevin Killian, US poet, novelist, critic and playwright, has written a book of poetry, Argento Series (2001), two novels, Shy (1989) and Arctic Summer (1997), a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989), and a book of stories, Little Men (1996) that won the PEN Oakland award for fiction. A second collection I Cry Like a Baby was published by Painted Leaf Books in 2001. With Lew Ellingham, Killian has written often on the life and work of the American poet Jack Spicer [1925-65] and co-edited Spicer’s posthumous books The Train of Thought and The Tower of Babel. And Killian and Peter Gizzi have just released a new edition of Spicer’s collected poetry for Wesleyan University Press. Killian’s work has been widely anthologized and has appeared in, among others, Best American Poetry 1988 (ed. John Ashbery), and Discontents (ed. Dennis Cooper). His newest books are a book of Selected Amazon Reviews and Action Kylie (poetry, 2008).
He has written on the Bay Area art scene for Artforum, Artweek, Framework, etc., etc. and, though not a natural “sub,” has labored mightily in video and theater work for Abigail Child, Cecilia Dougherty, Kota Ezawa, Carla Harryman, Sue Marcoux, Raymond Pettibon, Camille Roy, Leslie Scalapino, Sarah Schulman, Leslie Singer, Michael Turner, Laurie Weeks et al. For the San Francisco Poets Theater Killian has written thirty plays, including Stone Marmalade (1996, with Leslie Scalapino), The American Objectivists (2001, with Brian Kim Stefans), and Often (also 2001, with Barbara Guest).
He is one of the original members of the notorious San Francisco based “New Narrative” group, and helped to organize the original “Out Write” conferences of queer writing here in San Francisco, as well as the 1996 “Queer Beats” conference.
With Dodie Bellamy he has edited 155 issues of the SF-based writing/art zine they call “Mirage #4/Period[ical].” For their work with artists and writers they have been honored with tributes in exhibitions in San Francisco (San Francisco Public Library, summer 2004) and in New York (White Columns, spring 2006).
Posts by Kevin Killian (Kevin Killian)
A Faraway Place
November 26, 2012 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 5 Comments »
R. H. Quaytman and Jack Spicer
January 6, 2011 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under 151 3rd, One on One | 2 Comments »
Caste and Outcast
September 21, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 4 Comments »
A Less Shadowed Place
July 10, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Deborah Remington R.I.P.
May 19, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 10 Comments »
American Cinema
April 24, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
T.W. Five, “On Time,” at the Soap Gallery
March 14, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 1 Comment »
None of the Above
March 2, 2010 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Not New Work
November 30, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under 151 3rd | 0 Comments »
Hidden Treasures of the Ballpark
August 31, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
A Muted Trumpeter Swan
August 24, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 2 Comments »
Empire of Signs
August 18, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 3 Comments »
Safe Word
August 12, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 2 Comments »
Whose Car Is This?
August 9, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 2 Comments »
The Day Michael Died
July 26, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 3 Comments »
Blonde on a Bum Trip
July 22, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 1 Comment »
Mario Garcia Torres
July 12, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 4 Comments »
Charles Bernstein Visit
July 5, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 3 Comments »
Behind the Curtain
June 26, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
“Andmoreagain”
June 21, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Odessa Steps
June 12, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Neo Benshi
June 7, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Spelling Bee
May 30, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 19 Comments »
“The Lost Kinetic World”
May 27, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 2 Comments »
Harry Jacobus
May 23, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 5 Comments »
Charles Atlas and Mika Tajima
May 16, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under 151 3rd | 0 Comments »
Opening and Closing
May 12, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Doll Parts
May 8, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Orange Skies
May 4, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
Generations
April 25, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 4 Comments »
The Institution
April 18, 2009 | By Kevin Killian | Filed under Field Notes | 0 Comments »
