David Kirby is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University and the author of The House of Blue Light (2000) and The Ha-Ha (2003), both selected by Dave Smith for the Southern Messenger Poets series published by Louisiana State University Press. He has two books forthcoming in 2007, The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems (also by LSU Press) and an essay collection entitled Ultra-Talk: Johnny Cash, The Mafia, Shakespeare, Drum Music, St. Teresa Of Avila, And 17 Other Colossal Topics Of Conversation (University of Georgia Press). His work appears regularly in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies.

For samples of Kirby’s work online, browse these links:

• His own Web site, where you can hear a RealAudio recording of his voice reading a poem from his book Big Leg Music.
• Kirby was featured in the Summer 2003 issue of Story South, including five poems (“Mr. Andrews,” “A Really Good Story,” “Dear Derrida,” “James Dickey’s Dream” & “Heat Lightning”) & an interview, “The Travelling Word File.”
• His poem “Broken Promises” was used in the 2006 Poetry Out Loud national recitation competition.
• He has two poems in the archives at Poetry Daily: “The Mysteries” & “I Think Stan Done It.”
• He wrote “Ode to Myself as a Rough Draft” as a challenge when given the five winning words from The Southeast Review’s “Throw Words at David Kirby and See If They Stick” contest.

To purchase Kirby’s books, use these shopping links:

• The House of Blue Light: Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 2000)
  
• What Is a Book? (essays, University of Georgia Press, 2002)
  
• The Ha-Ha (Louisiana State University Press, 2003)
  
• I Think I Am Going to Call My Wife Paraguay: Selected Early Poems (Orchises Press, 2004)
  

MORE ABOUT THE IBPC...

General information

Archive of winning poems