Selected Publications

Poetry Books

Self-Portrait with Expletives, full-length collection, Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Series winner, Pleiades Press, distributed by LSU Press, 2010.

In the Evening of No Warning, full-length collection, New Issues Poetry and Prose, Western Michigan University, March 2002.

The Wanting, chapbook, Five Oaks Press, Newburgh, NY, 2016.

One of Us, chapbook, Mille Grazie Press, Santa Barbara, California, 2000.

Widow Under a New Moon, chapbook, Owl Creek Press, Seattle, Washington, 1990.

Granting the Wolf, chapbook, State Street Press, Brockport, New York, 1984.

Poetry in Selected Journals & Anthologies

Journals

Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Antioch Review, Gulf Coast, Kestrel, The Denver Quarterly, Hotel Amerika, The New York Quarterly, The Cincinnati Review, Quarterly West, The Notre Dame Review, Kansas Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, South Carolina Review, The Journal, Sycamore Review, Epoch, The Beloit Poetry Journal, diode, Confrontation, The American Literary Review, Lake Effect, Rattle, Spillway, and Miramar.

Anthologies

Notre Dame Review: The First Ten Years; A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry; A Gathering of Poets (on the anniversary of the Kent and Jackson State shootings); and Keener Sounds: Selected Poems from The Georgia Review.

Textbook

The Mind’s Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry, Pearson Longman, 2007.

Articles, Reviews, & Essays in Selected Venues

thedrunkenboat.com, The Iowa Review, Papers on Language and Literature, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Introduction to Poetry (Salem Press), The Point Where All Things Meet: Essays on Charles Wright, The Writer’s Chronicle, American Poetry, The House Is Made of Brick: The Poetry of Ruth Stone, Poetry International, The Georgia Review, Negative Capability, Poetry Daily, The Southern Review, The Journal, ForPoetry.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Cafe Solo, and Solo 3.

Papers Presented at Selected Conferences

Associated Writing Programs Conference (multiple presentations); Twentieth Century Literature Conference (multiple presentations); University of Perugia, Italy; University of California at Davis; California Polytechnic State University; American Institute of Florence, Italy; British Institute of Florence, Italy; and American Association of Higher Education.

Suggested Presentations

Who Is It That I Am Not? Writing the Persona Poem
The Art of the Art of Poetry: Writing Eckphrastic Verse
Accident Alert: On Exploiting Random Happenstance
Writing Without End: On Suspending the Need for Closure
Writing Dangerous Poetry
Transgression and Convention: Writing the Erotic Poem
Apprenticing the Blues: Writing and Teaching the Elegy
Taking Measure of Elegy and Velocity in Our Poetry
On Authenticity of Poetic Voice
What We Can Learn from Larry Levis’s Elegy
What We Can Learn from Linda Hull’s Collected Poems
Transgression and Convention in Contemporary Poetry
High-Speed Verse: The Emergence of Post-Postmodern Poetry
The Verse Novel
The Serious Business of the Funny Poem
Sexy Poems and the Foucault Inversion: The Aphrodisiac of Prohibition
Lyric Interludes in Narrative Poems
Bigger Mountains, More Space: Does Moving West Change Eastern Writers?
Give Me Pizza and a Gunshot Wound: Nature Poetry As Default
Beyond Doing No Harm: On Teaching the Poetry Workshop
Creating a Syllabus for the College Intro Creative Writing Class
The First Lesson: On the Centrality of Creative Writing in the English Curriculum
Commas End Sh*t: How to Write Essays Like a Professional
On Publishing Poetry

Selected Interviews

“Tension & Release: An Interview with Poet Kevin Clark,” Flashpoint: A Journal of Literature and Music, spring 2011.

“Kevin Clark: Free in the Atmosphere,” Propeller, 3.1, winter 2011.

“On Inspiration and the Muse: An Interview with Kevin Clark,” Moebius, spring 2004.

“Interview with Kevin Clark,” The Writers Forum television interview series, SUNY Brockport, October 9, 2002.

“Interview with Kevin Clark,” Beacon Street Review, vol. 15, no. 2, 2002.

Selected Honors & Awards

Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo County, California, two-year appointment, 2020.

The Wanting, winner of Five Oaks Press “Spring Is the Mischief” chapbook contest, 2016.

Artsmith Award, 2011.

Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Series winner, Pleiades Press, Self-Portrait with Expletives, 2010.

Finalist, The Drunken Boat essay competition, 2005.

Distinguished Teaching Award, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 2002.

Publishers Grant, for In the Evening of No Warning, from The Greenwall Fund, selected by The Academy of American Poets, 2001.

Co-winner, Charles Angoff Award from The Literary Review for outstanding contribution during a volume year, 1997.

First Place—Owl Creek Press Chapbook Contest, 1986.

First Place—State Street Press Chapbook Contest, 1984.

Fellowship—Bread Loaf Writers Conference, 1990.

Nominee—Pushcart Prize, 2014, 2013, 2008, 2006, 1997, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1988, 1984.

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award, University of California at Davis, 1980.

First Prize—Academy of American Poets Contest, University of California at Davis, 1983, 1980.

Education

PhD, English, University of California, Davis, 1986.

MA, English (Creative Writing), University of California, Davis, 1979.

BA, English, University of Florida, 1972.

Professional Teaching Experience

Full Professor, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; taught modern and contemporary American literature, the modern novel, modern world literature, and creative writing; 1988–2016.

Professor, Rainier Writing Workshop, Tacoma, WA (low-residency MFA); poetry writing, literature, and pedagogy; 2006–present (summers).

Courses Taught

Writing

Graduate Poetry Writing
Advanced Poetry Writing
Introduction to Poetry Writing

Literature

Contemporary American Poetry
Modern American Poetry
Great Books: 1853 to Present
Literary Modernism
American Literature: 1900–1956
Contemporary American Literature
Contemporary American Poets of Color
Modern Novel
Modern Poetry
Love, Sex, and Romance in Contemporary American Poetry
Modern British Poetry
American Confessional Poets
Modern World Poetry in Translation
Modern and Contemporary American Long Poem