Picture of author.

X. J. Kennedy

Author of Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama

82+ Works 4,025 Members 43 Reviews

About the Author

Widely anthologized, Kennedy's poetry may not be as influential among contemporary poets as others' because of his preference for, in his words, "old-fangled structures most poets have junked these days." As Kennedy's comments on his verse suggest, his poetry is witty, concise, and unpretentious. show more His subject matter is drawn from the everyday including his Catholic background and middle-class suburban life. Yet his concerns can be profound including death, violence, suicide, and Genesis. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Kennedy X J, K J Kennedy, X.J. Kennedy, ed. X. J. Kennedy, EDITOR X.J. KENNEDY

Also includes: Joe (X. J.) Kennedy (2)

Series

Works by X. J. Kennedy

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Editor — 902 copies
An Introduction to Poetry (1966) 570 copies
Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems (1992) — Editor — 370 copies
The Bedford Reader (1804) — Editor — 350 copies
Knock at a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry (1999) 320 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook (2002) 177 copies
Elympics (1999) 162 copies
An Introduction to Fiction (1979) — Editor — 141 copies
The Brief Bedford Reader (1994) — Editor — 121 copies
The Owlstone Crown (1983) 83 copies
Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (4th Edition) (1994) — Editor — 76 copies
Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory (2004) 70 copies
Brats (1986) 54 copies
The Beasts of Bethlehem (1992) 48 copies
Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh (2002) 42 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader and Research Manual (1993) 27 copies
Pegasus Descending: A Book of the Best Bad Verse (1971) — Editor — 26 copies
Writing and Revising: A Portable Guide (2006) 24 copies
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, 1955–2007 (2007) 21 copies
Uncle Switch: Loony Limericks (1997) 21 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers - Instructors Annotated Edition (2005) 18 copies
The Bedford guide for college writers: With readings and handbook (1990) 18 copies
The Forgetful Wishing Well: Poems for Young People (1985) 17 copies
Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985) 17 copies
Fresh Brats (1990) 15 copies
Instructor's Manual to Accompany Literature (Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama) (2007) 15 copies
Elefantina's Dream (2002) 14 copies
The Longman dictionary of literary terms : vocabulary for the informed reader (2005) 14 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader (1995) 14 copies
Nude Descending a Staircase: Poems/Songs/a Ballad (Classic Contemporary) (1961) 13 copies
The Phantom Ice Cream Man: More Nonsense Verse (1979) 13 copies
Did Adam Name the Vinegarroon (1982) 12 copies
Peeping Tom's Cabin: Comic Verse 1928-2008 (American Poets Continuum) (2007) 12 copies
City Kids: Street and skyscraper rhymes (2010) 12 copies
Ghastlies, Goops and Pincushions: Nonsense Verse (1989) 12 copies
One Winter Night in August and Other Nonsense Jingles (1975) 11 copies
Tygers of Wrath: Poems of Hate, Anger, and Invective (1981) 11 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, MLA Update Edition (13th Edition) (2016) 10 copies
The Kite That Braved Old Orchard Beach: Year-Round Poems for Young People (1991) 10 copies
The Lords of Misrule: Poems 1992--2001 (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (2002) 10 copies
The Eagle As Wide As the World (1997) 9 copies
Dark Horses: New Poems (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (1992) 9 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers (1993) 8 copies
Instructor's manual to accompany An introduction to poetry, fifth edition (1982) 8 copies
That Swing: Poems, 2008–2016 (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (2017) 7 copies
Literature for Life (2012) 7 copies
The Bedford guide for college writers (1987) 7 copies
Writing and Revising with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates: A Portable Guide (Portable (Bedford/St. Martins)) (2010) 7 copies
Messages; a thematic anthology of poetry (1973) — Editor — 7 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition (6th Edition) (2009) — Editor — 6 copies
Emily Dickinson in Southern California (First Godine Poetry Chapbook Series) (1973) 6 copies
Drat These Brats! (1993) 6 copies
Bedford Guide for College Writers 7e 2-in-1 & paperback thesarus (2004) 5 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition (8th Edition) (2015) 5 copies
The Bedford Guide For College Writers With Reader, Research Manual, And Handbook (9th Edition) (2011) 4 copies
Growing into Love, (1969) 4 copies
Instructors Edition Lit: an Introduction 5 (1990) 4 copies
Breaking and Entering (1971) 4 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook (Instructor's Annotated Edition) 4 copies
The Compact Bedford Guide for College Writers (1996) 4 copies
A Hoarse Half-Human Cheer (2014) 3 copies
Writing and Revising with 2009 MLA Update: A Portable Guide (2009) 3 copies
Missing link (1983) 2 copies
Instructors Manual (2002) 2 copies
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader (2013) 2 copies
Literature for Life (Instrut"s Copy) (2012) 2 copies
The Concise Bedford Guide for Writers (2014) 2 copies
That Swing: Poems, 2008-2016 (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) 1 copy
The Bedford Reader Twelfth edition Evaluation Copy (2014) 1 copy
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook by X. J. Kennedy, Bedford/St. Martin's 1 copy
The Bedford Reader, High School Edition (2016) 1 copy
The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual and Handbook (2016) 1 copy
Fits of Concision: Collected Poems of Six or Fewer Lines (Grolier Established Poets) (2014) 1 copy
The Bedford Reader: High School Reprint (2000) 1 copy
Bedford Guide for College Writers 3ED 1 copy
The Bedford Reader with 2009 MLA Update (2010) 1 copy
Epitaph for a Postal Clerk (included in The Norton Introduction to Literature - 5th Edition) 1 copy
Bedford Guide for College Writers Supplemental Excercises (1996) 1 copy
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama: Instructor's Edition 1 copy
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Compact Edition: Instructor's Manual (2002) 1 copy
Notes and Resources for Teaching The Bedford Reader (1994) 1 copy
Counter/measures: a magazine of rime, meter and song 1 copy
Work Explorer

Associated Works

Eric Carle's Animals Animals (1989) — Contributor — 2,135 copies
Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons (1991) — Contributor — 694 copies
Poetry Speaks to Children, Read & Hear [book & CD] (2005) — Guest, some editions — 591 copies
Contemporary American Poetry (1962) — Contributor, some editions — 380 copies
Writing Poems (1982) — Foreword, some editions — 376 copies
Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems About the Fun of Eating (1994) — Contributor — 290 copies
The Best American Poetry 1999 (1999) — Contributor — 208 copies
The Big Book For Our Planet (1993) — Contributor — 131 copies
American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse (2003) — Contributor — 131 copies
Witch Poems (1976) — Contributor — 63 copies
Thanksgiving Poems (1985) — Contributor — 47 copies
Celebrate Cricket: 30 Years of Stories and Art (2003) — Contributor — 43 copies
Halloween Poems (1989) — Contributor — 28 copies
60 Years of American Poetry (1996) — Contributor — 28 copies
Sunlight on the River: Poems About Paintings, Paintings About Poems (2015) — Contributor — 10 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 7, March 1977 (1977) — Contributor — 4 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 3, November 1975 (1975) — Contributor — 3 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, January 1979 (1979) — Contributor — 2 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1, September 1980 — Contributor — 1 copy
South Dakota review : the symposium: ten poets: fiction and poetry, volume 5, number 3 (autumn 1967) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems by X. J. Kennedy
Primary to Intermediate
A book of poems about animals, people, real life things and made up things, but lots of different people
This book gives me Anamalia vibes, at least in the illustrations. I wish I had time to read the whole thing. This'd be fun to read a poem a day in my classroom.
 
Flagged
_kaley.s | 2 other reviews | Apr 5, 2023 |
 
Flagged
laplantelibrary | Apr 17, 2022 |
Drat These Brats! by X. J. Kennedy
Amusing and wry.
½
 
Flagged
quondame | Oct 10, 2021 |
 
Flagged
mystikmama | 6 other reviews | Dec 30, 2020 |
See More Reviews

Lists

ListStacks

Awards

By AwardBy Work
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book
1000 Books to Read Before You Die
CCBC Choices
LA Times Book Prize
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
NCTE Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K—Grade 6
Utah Beehive Book Award
ALA Notable Books for Adults
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award
William Allen White Children's Book Award
Library of Congress Children's Literature Center Children's Books
ALA Notable Children's Book
NCTE Books That Invite Talk, Wonder, and Play
Lamont Poetry Prize

You May Also Like

Paul Fleischman
Michael Meyer
Diana Hacker
M. H. Abrams
Naomi Shihab Nye
Laurence Perrine
Robert Frost
Andrea A. Lunsford
Sylvan Barnet
Emily Dickinson
See All

Associated Authors

Dana Gioia Editor
Dorothy M. Kennedy Editor
Jane E. Aaron Editor
Keith Waldrop Editor, Contributor
Michael McCurdy Illustrator
Marcia F. Muth
Mark Bauerlein
David McPhail Illustrator
Joy Allen Illustrator
Ron Barrett Illustrator
Howard Moss Contributor
Sharon Olds Contributor
Joyce Carol Oates Contributor
Frank O'Connor Contributor
John Frederick Nims Contributor
Lorine Niedecker Contributor
Howard Nemerov Contributor
Alice Munro Contributor
N. Scott Momaday Contributor
Frederick Morgan Contributor
Marianne Moore Contributor
Lisa Moore Editor
Julia A. Moore Contributor
Charles Olson Contributor
John Milton Contributor
Brett C. Millier Contributor
Arthur Miller Contributor
Tillie Olsen Contributor
Linda Pastan Contributor
Wilfred Owen Contributor
Edgar Allen Poe Contributor
Alistair Reid Contributor
Henry Reed Contributor
John Crowe Ransom Contributor
Dudley Randall Contributor
Ezra Pound Contributor
Katherine Ann Porter Contributor
Alexander Pope Contributor
Plato Contributor
Jose Emilio Pacheco Contributor
Sylvia Plath Contributor
Daryl Pinckney Contributor
Robert Phillips Contributor
Octavio Paz Contributor
Josephine Miles Contributor
Emanuel di Pasquale Contributor
Dorothy Parker Contributor
Edna St. Vincent Millay Contributor
Samuel Menashe Contributor
James Michie Translator
John Lennon Contributor
Richard Lovelace Contributor
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Contributor
Jack London Contributor
Janet Lewis Contributor
Philip Levine Contributor
Denise Levertov Contributor
Doris Lessing Contributor
Emma Lazarus Contributor
George MacLeish Contributor
Irving Layton Contributor
D. H. Lawrence Contributor
Philip Larkin Contributor
Robert Langbaum Contributor
Lucy Krikorian Editor
Ted Kooser Contributor
Yusuf Komunyakaa Contributor
Gyorgy Lukacs Contributor
Katherine Mansfield Contributor
Charlotte Mew Contributor
Claude McKay Contributor
W. S. Merwin Contributor
James Merrill Contributor
George Meredith Contributor
John Ridland Contributor
Wallace McRae Contributor
Terrence McNally Contributor
Rod McKuen Contributor
Paul McCartney Contributor
Walter de la Mare Contributor
W. Somerset Maugham Contributor
David Mason Contributor
Bobbie Ann Mason Contributor
John Masefield Contributor
Andrew Marvell Contributor
Charles Martin Contributor
Martial Contributor
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Contributor
Adrienne Rich Contributor
Thomas Rymer Contributor
Alberto Rios Contributor
Grace Treasone Contributor
Derek Walcott Contributor
Nicholas A. Virgilio Contributor
Mona Van Duyn Contributor
Amy Uyematsu Contributor
John Updike Contributor
Chang Tzu Contributor
Stephen Tropp Contributor
Jean Toomer Contributor
Robert Wallace Contributor
Chidiock Tichborne Contributor
James Thurber Contributor
Dylan Thomas Contributor
Cornelius J. Ter Maat Contributor
Alfred Lord Tennyson Contributor
Henry Taylor Contributor
Amy Tan Contributor
Alice Walker Contributor
Edmund Waller Contributor
Jonathan Swift Contributor
August Wilson Contributor
William Butler Yeats Contributor
Thomas Wyatt Contributor
Richard Wright Contributor
James Wright Contributor
William Wordsworth Contributor
Virginia Woolf Contributor
Yvor Winters Contributor
William Carlos Williams Contributor
Emma Lee Warrior Contributor
Tennessee Williams Contributor
Miller Williams Contributor
Hugo Williams Contributor
Diane Williams Editor
Richard Wilbur Contributor
Walt Whitman Contributor
Ruth Whitman Contributor
Eudoria Welty Contributor
John Millington Synge Contributor
May Swenson Contributor
Theodore Roethke Contributor
Bettie Sellers Contributor
Stephen Shu-Ning Liu Contributor
Elaine Showalter Contributor
Percy Bysshe Shelley Contributor
Bernard Shaw Contributor
Karl Shapiro Contributor
William Shakespeare Contributor
Anne Sexton Contributor
Robert Schole Contributor
Paul Simon Contributor
Gjertrud Schnackenberg Contributor
William Savage Landor Contributor
Carole Satyamurti Contributor
Carl Sandburg Contributor
Mary Jo Salter Contributor
Hugh Kingsmill Contributor
Philip Roth Contributor
Christina Rossetti Contributor
Charles Simic Contributor
Isaac Bashevis Singer Contributor
W. Dabney Stuart Contributor
George Starbuck Contributor
Ruth Stone Contributor
Michael Stillman Contributor
Trumbull Stickney Contributor
Anne Stevenson Contributor
Wallace Stevens Contributor
James Stephens Contributor
Timothy Steele Contributor
Jon Stallworthy Contributor
David R. Slavitt Contributor
William Stafford Contributor
Sophocles Contributor
Richard Snyder Contributor
Gary Snyder Contributor
W. D. Snodgrass Contributor
William Jay Smith Contributor
Stevie Smith Contributor
Christopher Smart Contributor
Bill Knott Contributor
John Keats Contributor
Omar Khayyam Contributor
Raymond Carver Contributor
G. K. Chesterton Contributor
Anton Chekhov Contributor
John Cheever Contributor
Geoffrey Chaucer Contributor
Dorthi Charles Contributor
Fred Chappell Contributor
Nina Cassian Contributor
Hayden Carruth Contributor
John Ciardi Contributor
Lewis Carroll Contributor
Thomas Carper Contributor
Thomas Carew Contributor
Thomas Campion Contributor
Taniguchi Buson Contributor
Robert Burns Contributor
Anthony Burgess Contributor
Kate Chopin Contributor
Sarah N. Cleghorn Contributor
Gwendolyn Brooks Contributor
H. D. Contributor
Michael Drayton Contributor
Rita Dove Contributor
John Donne Contributor
E. R. Dodds Contributor
Emily Dickinson Contributor
Peter Davison Contributor
Run- D.M.C. Contributor
J. V. Cunningham Contributor
Edmund Clerihew Bentley Contributor
E. E. Cummings Contributor
Countee Cullen Contributor
Robert Creeley Contributor
Stephen Crane Contributor
Francis Cornford Contributor
Wendy Cope Contributor
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Contributor
William Cole Contributor
Robert Browning Contributor
Cleanth Brooks Contributor
Jane Kenyon Contributor
Edwin Arlington Robinson Contributor
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Contributor
James Baldwin Contributor
David B. Axelrod Contributor
W. H. Auden Contributor
Margaret Atwood Contributor
John Ashbery Contributor
Matthew Arnold Contributor
Aristotle Contributor
Roland Barthes Contributor
Matthew the Apostle Contributor
A. A. Ammons Contributor
Julia Alvarez Contributor
Dick Allen Contributor
Omar Ali-Shah Translator
Edward Albee Contributor
Francisco X. Alarcon Contributor
R. L. Barth Contributor
Matsuo Basho Contributor
Emily Bronte Contributor
Maud Bodkin Contributor
Charlotte Bronte Contributor
Robert Bridges Contributor
Richard Brautigan Contributor
Anne Bradshaw Contributor
T. Coraghessan Boyle Contributor
Jorge luis Borges Contributor
Louise Bogan Contributor
Robert Bly Contributor
Max Beerbohm Contributor
Harold Bloom Contributor
William Blake Contributor
Elizabeth Bishop Contributor
John Betjeman Contributor
Bruce Bennett Contributor
Saul Bellow Translator
Hilaire Belloc Contributor
Aphra Behn Contributor
John Dryden Contributor
C. Michael Dudash Cover artist
Terry Eagleton Contributor
George Herbert Contributor
Gerard Manley Hopkins Contributor
A. D. Hope Contributor
Garrett Hongo Contributor
John Hollander Contributor
Jonathan Holden Contributor
Geoffrey Hill Contributor
Robert Herrick Contributor
Beth Henley Contributor
A. E. Housman Contributor
Ernest Hemingway Contributor
Anthony Hecht Contributor
James Hayford Contributor
Robert Hayden Contributor
Nathanial Hawthorne Contributor
Geoffrey Hartman Contributor
Penny Harter Contributor
Horace Contributor
Langston Hughes Contributor
Richard Eberhart Contributor
Elizabeth Jennings Contributor
Hugh Kenner Contributor
Garrison Keillor Contributor
Weldon Kees Contributor
Donald Justice Contributor
James Joyce Contributor
Ben Jonson Contributor
Samuel Johnson Contributor
Robinson Jefferson Contributor
T. E. Hulme Contributor
Robinson Jeffers Contributor
Randell Jarrell Contributor
Henry James Contributor
Henrik Ibsen Contributor
David Henry Hwang Contributor
Abbie Huston Evans Contributor
Zora Neale Hurston Contributor
Leigh Hunt Contributor
John Harrington Contributor
Michael Harper Contributor
Thomas Hardy Contributor
Gustave Flaubert Contributor
Alice Fulton Contributor
Northrop Frye Contributor
Robert Frost Contributor
Sigmund Freud Contributor
Robert Francis Contributor
Maria Irene Fornes Contributor
Carolyn Forche Contributor
Edward Fitzgerald Translator
Shirley Geok-lin Lim Contributor
Stanley Fish Contributor
Edward Field Contributor
Leslie Fiedler Contributor
William Faulkner Contributor
Luke the Evangelist Contributor
Louise Erdrich Contributor
Ralph Waldo Emerson Contributor
T. S. Eliot Contributor
Federico Garcia Lorca Contributor
Paul Zimmer Contributor
Donald Hall Contributor
Wilhelm Grimm Contributor
John Haines Contributor
R. S. Gwynn Contributor
Thom Gunn Contributor
Arthur Guiterman Contributor
Susan Gubar Contributor
Ronald Gross Contributor
Emily Grosholz Contributor
Jakob Grimm Contributor
Sandra M. Gilbert Contributor
Thomas Gray Contributor
Robert Graves Contributor
Nadine Gordimer Contributor
Louise Gluck Contributor
Susan Glaspell Contributor
Allen Ginsberg Contributor
Gary Gildner Contributor
Andrew Hudgins Contributor
Michele Chessare Illustrator

Statistics

Works
82
Also by
20
Members
4,025
Popularity
#6,264
Rating
3.9
Reviews
43
ISBNs
309
Touchstones
19

Charts & Graphs

See More Charts & Graphs