American poet Kim Addonizio was born and raised in Washington, D. C. Her mother, Pauline Betz, was a highly regarded tennis champion, and her father, Bob Addie (born Robert Addonizio), was a sportswriter and Washington Post columnist. She dropped out of both Georgetown University and American University before moving to San Francisco, where she earned a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University.
Addonizio is the author of nine poetry collections, including National Book Award finalist Tell Me (BOA Editions, 2002), as well as two novels, two short story collections, and two books on craft: The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (W. W. Norton, 1997), co-written with Dorianne Laux, and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within (Norton, 2009). She also wrote the memoir-in-essays Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life (Penguin, 2016) and co-edited Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos (Grand Central Publishing, 2002) with Cheryl Dumesnil. Her latest poetry collection is 2024’s Exit Opera (Norton).
Addonizio’s awards include two fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim, two Pushcart Prizes, a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal, and the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, and Hungarian and published in China, Spain, Mexico, Lebanon, and the UK. A founding editor of Five Fingers Review, Addonizio has released two poetry and music albums: Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing, with Susan Browne, and My Black Angel, which accompanies her artist book, My Black Angel: Blues Poems and Portraits, created with woodcut artist Charles D. Jones. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Paris Review, Poetry, The Sun, the Times Literary Supplement, and many other journals and anthologies.
Addonizio teaches poetry workshops on Zoom and elsewhere and has taught at San Francisco State University and Goddard College. She performs her work widely, often with accompaniment from her partner, guitarist Danny Caron. Her daughter is the actress Aya Cash. She lives in Oakland, California.
-
More Kim Addonizio
Audio: Addonizio talks about Kerouac and forest fire watching for BBC 3's Between the Ears
Text: Read poems by Addonizio at the Poetry Foundation
Text: Devin Kelly looks at Addonizio's "The Sound" in his newsletter, Ordinary Plots
-
Photo by Elizabeth Sanderson.