David Kirby

David Kirby teaches at Florida State University, where he is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English. His latest books are a poetry collection, Help Me, Information, and a textbook modestly entitled The Knowledge: Where Poems Come From and How to Write Them. Kirby is also the author of Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, which the Times Literary Supplement described as “a hymn of praise to the emancipatory power of nonsense.” He is currently on the editorial board of Alice James Books.

 

  • The All-Overs, This is Where God Stays When He’s in Town and Mr. Jackson’s Killer

    I like words like gallimaufry, tawdry, billingsgate—braggadocio! Rodomontade.
  • The Road Goes On Forever and The Party Never Ends by David Kirby

    As both an eminent, award-winning American poet and music critic, David Kirby has published more than two dozen volumes of…

    Issue #137 January 2023
  • The Solotaroff Protocol, by David Kirby

    On April 14, 1994, Barbara and I were driving from Tallahassee to Baton Rouge to visit my parents and decided to split our journey with an overnight stay in Fairhope
    Issue #122 October 2021
  • Overdetermination (It’s Not as Boring As It Sounds) by David Kirby

    You want your poems to be like you: fully alive.
    Issue #115 March 2021
  • It’s Called the Renaissance, You Know, or The Soul Sibling Report by David Kirby

    “Lady and gentlemen,” said composer Dimitri Tiomkin in his 1955 Academy Awards acceptance speech
    Issue #107 July 2020
  • “Getting Stabbed Kinda Takes the Fight Out of Ya” by David Kirby

    This month’s essay on voice by David Kirby emanates the confidence and tone of an accomplished poet who is also…

    Issue #105 May 2020
  • The Excellent Trip

    You thought you’d need a month. You thought you’d need
  • The Names

    My student Natasha, who is Greek but is now living in Turkey,
  • Say You’re Don Giovanni

    Say you’re Don Giovanni Giovanni and you make
  • Pink is the Navy Blue of India

    Flea market guy tells me the pornos are five dollars