Kenny Fries
Kenny Fries (born September 22, 1960) is an American memoirist and poet.[1] He is the author of The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory (2007), Body, Remember: A Memoir (1997), and editor of Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out (1997). He received a 2009 Creative Capital grant in Innovative Literature, the 2007 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, the Gregory Kolovakos Award, a Creative Arts Fellowship from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan.[citation needed]
He lives in Germany and teaches in the low residency MFA Creative Writing Program at Goddard College.[2]
Contents
Early life and education
Fries was born in Brooklyn, New York.[3] He graduated with an MFA from Columbia University's School for the Arts.[3]
Fries graduated in 1977 from high school[which?] and went on to pursue a degree in English and American Literature, at Brandeis University.[citation needed] He received a master's degree in Playwriting at Columbia University.[citation needed]
Career
Kenny Fries officially started writing in 1988, after he had begun attending Millay Colony for the Arts.[citation needed] The majority of Fries' books and poems were written due to his experiences as a disabled, gay, Jewish man. Some of the writings that Fries has written include: Body, Remember: A Memoir (2003), Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out, The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory (2007), Anesthesia: Poems by Kenny Fries (1996), Desert Walking: Poems (2000), The Healing Notebooks (1990) and Night After Night: Poems (1984). Some of the scholarly writings written by Fries include: "Songs of Whitman" (2003), "Comedy is Not a Crutch" (2001), and "Where Ecstasy Might Reside" (1995).[citation needed]
Honors and awards
Kenny Fries received the 2007 Outstanding Book Award, from the Gustavus Myers Center for the study of Bigotry and Human Rights.[citation needed] He was a Creative Arts Fellow of the Japan-US Friendship commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as being a Fulbright scholar to Japan.[citation needed] In 2009, Fries received residency in the artists' community in Yaddo.[citation needed] In 2010 he received Ledig House International writers residency.[citation needed] Fries has also collaborated with composers Kumiko Takahashi and Yuka Takechi, and singer Mika Kimula on their new music work In the Gardens of Japan, which has been performed in Tokyo, Yokohama, and New York City.[citation needed] Fries has also received a grant in Innovative Literature from the Creative Capitol Foundation, to complete one of his books.[citation needed]
Works
- The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory (2007)
- Body, Remember: A Memoir (1997)
- Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out (1997)
- Desert Walking: Poems (2000)
- Anesthesia: Poems (1996)
References
- ↑ Klein, Jeff. "The Starting Line: What Is Disability?: May 16, 2008", The New York Times, 2008-05-16. Retrieved on 2009-05-23.]
- ↑ http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/07/29/kenny-fries-on-how-being-disabled-influences-his-work-gay-pride-and-writing-about-identity/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2003). Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights, Greenwood Publishing Group.
External links
- Fulbright Scholar Stories: Kenny Fries
- Kenny Fries's Web Site
- The Disability History Association Newsletter
- Comedy is not a crutch
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- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2016
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- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2016
- 1960 births
- American memoirists
- American people with disabilities
- American male poets
- Gay writers
- Jewish American writers
- Living people
- LGBT Jews
- LGBT poets
- LGBT writers from the United States
- Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
- Brandeis University alumni
