User:Lindsl32/Jennifer L. Knox

Jennifer L. Knox (*1968) is an American poet. Born in Lancaster, California,She received her BA from the University of Iowa, and her MFA in poetry writing from New York University. She has taught poetry writing at Hunter College and New York University.

Her poetry has appeared in the following anthologies: The Best American Poetry (2006, 2003 and 1997); Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to Present and Free Radicals: American Poets before Their First Books.

Her first book of poems, A Gringo Like Me, was published in 2005 by Soft Skull Press. A second edition was in printed in 2007 by Bloof Books. Her second book of poems, Drunk by Noon, was published in 2007 by Bloof Books. Her third book of poems, The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, also published by Bloof Books in 2010.

Her writing has appeared and/or is/was forthcoming in 88, American Poetry Review, Barrelhouse, Conduit, Fence, Field, Forklift, Ohio, The Hat, The Iowa Review, Jubliat, Kulture Vulture, Margie, Open City, Painted Bride Quarterly, Ploughshares, Subtropics, and Verse.

Childhood
Jennifer L. Knox grew up in the Mojave Desert. Her father was an accountant and mother, a speech therapist. Her father was from Nova Scotia, and being from Nova Scotia she explains he had a very satirical sense of humor, Nova Scotians share the British love of understated, self-deprecating satire. In junior high she played the clarinet and was voted Class Clown.

“I was very obnoxious, very lonely, and vice versa until junior high school when I discovered drugs and alcohol. I played the clarinet, was voted Class Clown, stole Boone’s Farm wine from the 7-11, and got mostly B’s. I wanted to be many things: an actress, a jockey, a truck driver, a monster movie make-up artist, a glass blower, an animator, a vet, and an avian linguist (current).” says Knox

Influences
Some inflences include, Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes, Woody Allen’s Without Feathers and Side Effects, and also loves Jacques Tati’s work. Also Knox says, "I adore Warner Brothers cartoons, especially their timing and sidelong glances when someone realizes they’re screwed—that little 'ahoh.'" "I know I’ve been very influenced by Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes, and Woody Allen’s Without Feathers and Side Effects. I love the way they straddle high and low culture—just like Warner Brothers cartoons. I went to school out in the middle of the desert—our teachers were paid less than RTD bus drivers. I didn’t learn about the Barber of Seville in music class—I learned about it through a parody of it." says Knox in interview

Style
The poetry of Jennifer L. Knox is very bold, unedited, and real. Her poems are filled with humor, pop culture, and quite frequently, curse words. She delves into the pop culture of modern America today with no censors. Even with this saucy and savvy writing style, Knox makes use of strong diction, hyperboles, and metaphors.

Her poems are an almost indescribable mix of crazed humor and sympathetic imagination, always provocative and even moving.What's striking about Knox's work is that she seems willing to say almost anything, which sounds like it could be self-indulgent but which in her hands turns into a powerful, idiosyncratic account of American culture. She has described her reader as "a man, dressed like a woman, is over 40 but wider than a mile, 9 feet tall, all that, is a Camaro owner ... happily answers all telephone surveys" Although, it's evident through her success that a variety of audiences can enjoy her work.

"In workshops, my poems were often described as “sarcastic” and “ironic”—but neither label ever made sense to me." She has since been described to have a Menippean satire.

"I adore Warner Brothers cartoons, especially their timing and sidelong glances when someone realizes they’re screwed—that little 'ahoh.'"

Knox has been compared to comedian Sarah Silverman, artist Jeff Koons, a 10-year-old who can’t keep her mouth shut, and cartoonist R. Crumb. None of these equations is quite right, however. Jennifer L. Knox’s work is unmistakably her own: darkly hilarious, surprisingly empathetic, utterly original.

Jennifer L. Knox is the only thing standing between the average reader of poetry in America today and a full-scale unraveling of every principle held dear by generations of sorry excuses for subjects-of-the-enunciation not worth the poorly landscaped space they take up with their pathetic, fetid meat-selves. And that, depending on which end of the speculum is violating your mirror phase, is very nearly a good thing.

Books
A Gringo Like Me 2005 Borrowing its title from an Ennio Morricone ditty in the spaghetti western Gunfight at Red Sands, Jennifer L. Knox’s A Gringo Like Me contains poems at once raucous and sexy, tender and high. In favorites such as “Hot Ass Poem,” “Cruising for Prostitutes,” and “Chicken Bucket,” Knox’s speakers appear ornery, hickish, undereducated, misogynist, or worse, but each quirky character manages to elucidate a truth we’re better off knowing, even if we’d rather forget it. In A Gringo Like Me, Knox roughrides her muse at full gallop, shouting obscene slogans, bits of jokes, and sweet nothings at the top of her lungs along the way.

Drunk By Noon 2007 "This second book from Knox, a young New York poet, continues the playful romp through the warped Americana she began in her debut, A Gringo Like Me. Here, Knox gives voice to wayward teens, drug-addled sages and fat dogs fantasizing about killing babies—among other unsavory characters—through dramatic monologues and quick narrative sketches. Fascination with the down-and-out lurks behind Knox's layers of irony and comic distance." from Publishers Weekly

The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway 2010 In The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, Jennifer L. Knox expands on her inimitable cast of characters, in hilariously poignant poems. In poems like "Marriage" and "One Ton of Dirt," Knox ventures further into autobiographical territory than she's ever gone before ... exploring relationships with her exes, her parents, and her younger self.

Poetry

 * A Poem in Verse Magazine
 * Fat Cats, Skinny Rats A Poem in InDigest Magazine
 * A Poem Pimp my Ride in The New Yorker
 * A Poem You are a Strategy
 * A Poem Baywatch
 * In the Canyons, Hidden Farms
 * The Aqueduct's Up There Somewhere
 * Let's Go Away for Awhile