Kevin Kiely (poet)

Kevin Kiely (born 1953) is a poet, novelist, critic and playwright whose writings and public statements have met with controversy, not least his biography of Francis Stuart.

Early life

Kiely was born on 2 June 1953 in Warrenpoint, County Down. His grandfather's brother was the Olympian John Jesus Flanagan, inventor of the hammer for Slazenger America as used in the Olympic Games, and three-time record-breaking gold medallist.^[1] Kiely's childhood was spent in many parts of Ireland due to his father's work with the Munster & Leinster Bank. Aged 7, he was sent to Wimbledon London to his aunt. In 1963 on the death of his father, John Francis Kiely, he was sent by his guardian and uncle, Edward Vaughan-Neil, to Mt St. Joseph's Abbey, Roscrea where he was a boarder from 1966-1969. He completed his education in Blackrock College, Dublin, from 1969-1971.

Wandering, work, academic life

He became a field study technician for Smedley HP in Cambridgeshire 1973-1975 and wandered in Europe working part-time at various jobs while reading in the national libraries of many countries, but otherwise mainly residing in Paris and London. Kiely attended University College Galway in 1976, participating on the Art Council-funded National Writers Workshop, and was made an honorary fellow of Iowa University in 1983. He holds a Masters in Literature from Trinity College in 2005 and a PhD from University College Dublin in 2009. His doctoral thesis on John L. Sweeney:^[2] Patron of Poetry at Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room gained him an American Fulbright Award in 2007, enabling years of full-time lecturing at American universities including Boise State University and University of Idaho (Moscow), and research at Harvard.

Writings

Kiely co-edited The Belle, a counter-cultural magazine with Maurice Scully from 1978-1979.^[3] He moved from Dublin to Spain where he taught at Colegio Xaloc and gave public lectures on poetry and literature.

Quintesse, published in 1982 in Dublin by Co-Op Books, found a New York publisher in 1985. During this period he was invited to the University of Iowa on the International Writing Programme Fellowship working with the American poet Paul Engel^[4] as well as poets Gary Snyder, Marvin Bell and Jorie Graham.

Mere Mortals, an experimental pastiche of the post-Joycean novel, was published in 1989 in Dublin, where Kiely had begun reviewing poetry and literature, firstly with John Mulcahy’s Hibernia, and later for various publications^[5] including The Examiner and Books Ireland. He became New Writing Editor and later Literary Editor (2000-2005) on Books Ireland at the invitation of its founder, Jeremy Cecil Addis in 1995. With the publication of the definitive biography of Francis Stuart: Artist and Outcast in Ireland and America, Kiely’s stance was seen as ‘not writing the book that more opinionated readers, eager to prove Stuart's lapses, would have demanded.'^[6]

Kiely’s criticism,^[7] especially of contemporary poetry,^[8] has placed him as subversively counter-cultural in questioning the pervasively state-funded poetry scene amidst the arts in general amidst cliques and cabals. Kiely’s criticism reached national and international news when he reviewed President Michael D. Higgins' Selected Poems in 2012.^[9]

Kiely’s poetry such as the collection Breakfast with Sylvia, published in 2005 was highly praised in America and Ireland by leading poets. ‘Kiely has a reputation as strong in Europe and the US as it is here’.^[10] His presence on the Irish poetry scene is despised in some quarters due to vociferous and persistent criticism of institutions such as Aosdána, which he feels are anathema to the identity and autonomy of the serious artist. Kiely wishes to make public the lack of accountability of many arts institutions.^[11]

Kiely's plays, Multiple Indiscretions (1997) and Children of No Importance (2000), have been produced by RTÉ. He is also a successful novelist for young readers. A Horse Called El Dorado won the CBI Bisto Award in 2006. SOS Lusitania (2013) is a novel about war, politics and conspiracy theory. His most recent adult fiction is The Welkinn Complex, which exposes psychiatric practice and the pharmaceutical industry.

Kiely received Arts Council Literature Bursary Awards for his writings in 1980, 1989, 1990, 1998, 1999, and 2004. He writes extensive and controversial criticism in Hibernia, Irish Examiner, The Democrat Arts Page, Irish Studies Review, Honest Ulsterman, Fortnight, Books Ireland, The London Magazine, The Irish Book Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Irish Times, Irish Arts Review, Irish Literary Review, and Idaho Arts Quarterly.

An original and genuine poet, non-prolific in output, he has found an audience for his poetry such as ‘To Conjure Up,’ ‘Breakfast with Sylvia Plath,’ ‘Yesterday She Read Coleridge to me,’ and ‘A Map of Melancholy’, which are highly acclaimed.^[12]

Besides book publication and work in anthologies his poetry has appeared in The Edinburgh Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Adrift (New York), Foolscap (London), Oasis (London), Acumen (UK), Other Poetry (UK), Cyphers, The Literary Review (New Jersey), Chapman (Scotland), Southword, Cork Literary Review, The Black Mountain Review, The Shop, Fortnight, Storm (Scotland), Touchstone (UK), Stony Thursday Book, Idaho Arts Quarterly, The Journal: Cumbria (UK), Decanto (UK), The Poetry Bus, The Sunday Independent, and Revival Literary Journal.

Interviews

• 'Poet Kevin Kiely on poetry and politics' interview by Gretchen Jude; Boise Weekly January 2, 2008.
• The Arbiteronline Podcast Interview with Kevin Kiely by Arbiter Editor, Dustin Leprey; Idaho Statesman February 21, 2008.
• 'Want to put your feelings into words'; Chad Dryden talked to Kevin Kiely; Kevin Kiely's Journey East, serialized in The Arbiter commencing January 21, 2008.
• Kevin Kiely "House of Figs"^[13]
• Kevin Kiely "Belfield Metaphysica"^[14]
• Kevin Kiely interview with Alok Mishra for Ashvamegh Journal ^[15]

Published works

• Pieta, The Anthology (short fiction) ed. Leland Bardwell Co-Op Books Dublin 1982
• Quintesse, St Martin’s Press, New York 1985. Gavin Witt, English Major, Yale University wrote a study of Quintesse, 1988
• Mere Mortals, Poolbeg, Dublin 1989 (Short-List Hughes & Hughes Fiction Prize 1990)
• Multiple Indiscretions, RTÉ 1997
• Children of No Importance, RTÉ 2000
• Plainchant for a Sundering (long-poem) Lapwing, Belfast 2001
• A Horse Called El Dorado, O’Brien Press, Dublin 2005 (Bisto Honour Award, 2006)
• Breakfast with Sylvia Lagan, Belfast 2005/US Edition 2007; Awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry 2006
• Francis Stuart: Artist and Outcast, Liffey Press, Dublin 2007, Dufour, PA 2008 (Authorised Biography)
• Something Sensational To Read in the Train (anthology foreword: Brendan Kennelly) Lemon Soap Press, Dublin 2005
• Catullus: One Man of Verona Anthology, ed. Ronan Sheehan Farmar & Farmar Ltd 2010
• The Welkinn Complex Number One Son Publishing Co., Florida USA 2011
• Ends & Beginnings: Anthology eds. John Gery and William Pratt AMS Press Inc, New York 2011 Windows Anthology eds. Heather Brett and Noel Monahan 2012
• In Place of Love and Country eds. Richard Parker & John Gery Crater Press, London 2013
• SOS Lusitania, O’Brien Press, Dublin 2013
• The Taking of Christ (co-authored with Pamela Mary Brown) 2013

Further reading

• Kiely, Kevin “Aos Dána: where self-selection meets self-praise, in a faux Gaelic, Haugheyesque arts beano”, Village Magazine, February–March 2014.

References