Instrument of protest, inspiration, expression
Susan Kinsolving remembers her mother reading poems to her, and bringing her to hear the poets Carl Sandburg and Kenneth Rexroth. As an elementary school student, some of her own poems were published in the local paper, along with poems by other children. Teachers encouraged her in her writing. Now she is the poet-in-residence at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, where she herself can provide inspiration and encouragement to young writers.
Kinsolving has also taught in the Bennington Writers Seminars, and at the University of Connecticut, Southampton College, Willard-Cybulski Men’s Prison, and the California Institute of the Arts. Her poems have received critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Lost Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. She has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. The author of four books of poetry, Kinsolving is also a librettist, whose works have been performed in national and international venues. She has been awarded numerous fellowships in this country and five international fellowships.
Many of Kinsolving’s poems relate to science. Her first book focused on horticulture and floral metaphor. The poems in another book examined aphasia and dementia’s linguistic enigma. Her most recent book, Peripheral Vision, features a series of poems regarding prosthetic eyes, the history of glass eyes, and the science of acrylic eyes, as well as the perspectives of some people who wear them.
Poetry goes well beyond propaganda or platitudes, Kinsolving points out. “Through inspiring and surprising language, poetry reveals truth, emotion, and mystery. Poetry can protest injustice. Poetry can give voice to life’s profound events: love or grief. Poetry can also express the elusive moments of human existence.”
—Ginny Lowe Connors, former West Hartford poet laureate