Kenward Elmslie

Kenward Elmslie
Elmslie as a senior at Harvard University, 1950
Born	(1929-04-27)April 27, 1929 New York City, New York
Died	June 29, 2022(2022-06-29) (aged 93) New York City, New York
Alma mater	Harvard University (B.A. English, 1950)
Literary movement	The New York School

Kenward Gray Elmslie (April 27, 1929 - June 29, 2022) was an American writer, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.

Life and career

Born in New York City, Elmslie, a grandson of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, spent his childhood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, prepped at the St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a B.A. in literature. He moved to Cleveland to work as an intern at Karamu House, where there was an interracial theatre group. There he met lyricist John Latouche. At Latouche's invitation, Elmslie moved back to New York in 1952 to live with him. The couple also bought a farmhouse in Calais, Vermont. Latouche died of a heart attack in the house in August, 1956. Elmslie kept the property, which served as his summer home and, beginning in the 1970s, headquarters for Elmslie's Z Press.

He began his career collaborating with composers on operas and musicals in an attempt to bring a contemporary style to classical theater. Among his theatrical works are The Grass Harp and Lola, both projects in collaboration with Claibe Richardson.

His poetry and prose is often combined with the graphical work of other artists. A collection of his writing, Motor Disturbance (1971), won the Frank O'Hara Award for Poetry in 1971. He was awarded the National Endowment of the Arts Award for Power Plant Sestina (1967) and the Ford Foundation Grant, as well as the Project for Innovative Poetry's Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry, and an award from the National Council of the Arts.

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In 1973, Elmslie was asked to edit an issue of The World, the literary journal of the Poetry Project at St. Marks in NYC. He decided he wanted to edit something more permanent, and instead founded Z Magazine and Z Press, acting as the press' editor and publisher. Z Press was first based in NYC, but then moved to Elmslie's summer home in Calais, Vt. The journal, which appeared annually and was titled in successive repetitions of the letter "Z" (i.e. "Z," "ZZ," etc.), continued for six issues, the last being published in 1978. Z Press continued publishing books, broadsides, postcards and the occasional LP record until 1987. The press was briefly revived in the late 1990s to issue several single-poem chapbooks, including, in 2000, Sun on Six by Jeff Clark, with a linocut by Jasper Johns. The Z magazine issues printed a wide range of authors, from poets associated with "the New York School" to personal essayist Phillip Lopate, and art features by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Donna Dennis, among others. Apart from the magazine, Z Press primarily published works by other New York School writers and artists (many of them Elmslie's friends) including John Ashbery, Ron Padgett, James Schuyler, and perhaps most extensively, long time partner Joe Brainard. Elmslie's work with graphic artists such as Brainard combined poetry with art to emphasize their interconnectedness; his work in theatre demonstrates his commitment to art as a whole, not only to one medium. Poet Alice Notley says of Elmslie's Routine Disruptions (1998), “this is an icon, for me, of Elmslie's work, its wild funniness, theatricality, brazenness, its love of art and objects”.

Works

Theater

• Miss Julie (1965)
• Lizzie Borden (1965)
• The Sweet Bye and Bye (1966)
• The Grass Harp (1972)
• City Junket (1972)
• The Seagull (1974)
• Washington Square (1976)
• Three Sisters (1986)
• Postcards on Parade (1993)

Poetry and prose

• Pavilions (1961)
• Power Plant Poems (1967)
• Album (1969)
• Girl Machine (1971)
• Circus Nerves (1971)
• Motor Disturbance (1971)
• The Orchid Stories (1973)
• Tropicalism (1975)
• The Alphabet Work (1977)
• Topiary Trek (1977)
• Communications Equipment (1979)
• Moving Right Along (1980)
• Champ Dust (1994)
• Bare Bones (1995)
• Routine Disruptions: Selected Poems and Lyrics 1960 - 1998 (1998)

Collaborations with visual artists

• The Baby Book (with Joe Brainard) (1965)
• The 1967 Gamebook Calendar (with Joe Brainard) (1967)
• The Champ (with Joe Brainard) (1968)
• Shiny Ride (with Joe Brainard) (1972)
• Topiary Trek (with Karl Torok) (1977)
• 26 Bars (with Donna Dennis) (1987)
• Bimbo Dirt (with Ken Tisa) (1982)
• Palais Bimbo Snapshots (with Ken Tisa) (1982)
• Sung Sex (with Joe Brainard) (1992)
• Pay Dirt (with Joe Brainard) (1992)
• Nite Soil (postcard collages by Elmslie) (2000)
• Cyberspace (with Trevor Winkfield) (2000)
• Snippets (with Trevor Winkfield) (2002)
• Agenda Melt (with Trevor Winkfield) (2004)

Songs

• Love Wise composer: Marvin Fisher. Recorded by Nat King Cole
• Bang Bang Tango, composer: Kenneth Deifik. Recorded by Estelle Parsons.

References

• Ashbery, John. "The Figure in the Carport," Parnassus (v5 No. 1, Fall/Winter 1976).
• Bamberger, W. C. "Interview with Kenward Elmslie," New American Writing #8/9 (Fall 1991).
• Corbett, William. "Recent Work of Kenward Elmslie," New American Writing #2 (Fall 1987).
• Davis, Bill. "Z Press: Small and Sensible," Stepping Out: The Vanguard Arts/Vermont Vanguard Press (Nov. 4, 1980).
• Ford, Mark. New York Poets II: An Anthology. Carcanet Press, 2006
• Hall, Steven. "Librettoland: An Interview with Kenward Elmslie," Opera Journal (v.9 No. 2, 1976).
• Ross, Stuart. "Interview with Kenward Elmslie and Joe Brainard," Mondo Hunkamooga #1 [Toronto], 1983.

Videos

• https://vimeo.com/channels/kenwardelmslie

External links

• Kenward Elmslie Papers MSS 0521. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
• Corrected manuscript of Elmslie’s YELLOW DRUM at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.