Researchers discuss writing a new biography of the seminal New York School poet, using the Library's mammoth collection of his papers.

Registration for this event has sold out. A limited number of standby tickets will be available on the night of the event.

Kenneth Koch is best known as a founding New York School poet and pioneer in the teaching of creative writing. His papers form one of the largest collections from a single author at the Library's Berg Collection of English and American Literature. NEH Long-Term Fellow Susannah Hollister and scholar Emily Setina discuss their biography-in-progress of Koch and show select items from the Berg's vast and varied holdings. Speaking with the Berg's curator, Carolyn Vega, Hollister and Setina will describe how the archive has helped them discover the charismatic, prolific artist in the fullness of his life and reflect on how we can come to know writers through the records they leave.

The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature comprises some 35,000 printed volumes, pamphlets, and broadsides, and 2,000 linear feet of literary archives and manuscripts, representing the work of more than 400 authors.

The Center for Research in the Humanities welcomes everyone to join the conversation between curators, librarians, and researchers, as they discuss new scholarship and projects, research methods, and the Library's rich collections and resources.

The NEH Long-Term Fellowships at The New York Public Library have been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Susannah Hollister is an NEH Long-Term Fellow at the New York Public Library for 2022-23. She holds a PhD in English from Yale and has taught at the University of Texas and the US Military Academy. Her work on US poetry and culture has received support from the ACLS, NEH Summer Stipends, the American Philosophical Society, and others.

Emily Setina is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has published numerous essays on twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers and artists, and her book The Writer in the Darkroom: Photography and Biography in Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Marianne Moore is forthcoming from Oxford. Together, Hollister and Setina are at work on a co-authored biography of Kenneth Koch. Their previous collaboration was a critical edition of Gertrude Stein’s Stanzas in Meditation (Yale, 2012).

Carolyn Vega is the Curator of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at The New York Public Library, which holds the archives of Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, and many others. In this role, she develops and promotes collections through classes and other forms of outreach. She has organized a number of exhibitions, including on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Emily Dickinson, Tennessee Williams, the screenplays of James Ivory, and authors who have drawn their inspiration from the collections of the New York Public Library. She holds an MSLIS from Pratt Institute.

To join | Please register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open around 5:30 PM. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

CONNECT

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Courtesy Susannah Hollister
Courtesy Emily Setina
Courtesy Carolyn Vega