Interview// Play for Mortal Stakes: A Conversation with Richard Kenney

At a glance, the award-winning poet, Richard Kenney, can seem like a book hard to crack. His prowess with language, his oratory muscles, his years nose-buried in highfalutin tomes—all of these might suggest a question-and-answer interview would prove more mind-boggling than equal-footed back-and-forth. However, in reality, Kenney is a warm chap, as willing to explain an idea at length as he is to sit quietly over a cup of tea and ponder whatever words linger in the grey area between the conscious and unconscious. A world-class writer, Kenney is, perhaps above all else, a teacher, a guide. In this way, he embodies the literature that he’s fallen in love with. At its best, he’ll tell you, literature is a way to learn how to be. And in Kenney’s presence, that road map is laid out on the table, compass beside it.