Kenny Fries was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 22, 1960. He received his undergraduate degrees in English and American Literature, at Brandeis University, and then completed an MFA in playwriting at Columbia University. He currently teaches in the master’s program for Creative Writing at Goddard College.
Fries writes largely about the physical body and his experiences as a gay, disabled man. He uses the body as he describes it “as both subject and metaphor; as the place where the personal becomes the universal; as the site of memory, language, and desire.” He even wrote his own version of Alison Bechdel’s test on fair representation to address disability, calling it the Fries Test. For a creative work to pass the Fries Test he asked: “Does a work have more than one disabled character? Do the disabled characters have their own narrative purpose other than the education and profit of a nondisabled character? Is the character’s disability not eradicated either by curing or killing?”
In the poem Body Language, Fries explores the physical and metaphorical use of a scar, as the past and present meld into the scar itself. I find this poem particularly evocative as it uses the visceral descriptions and sensations of touching this scar and comparing that to the vulnerability and acknowledgment of the memories that follow this wound. There is a concern that Fries explores whether a scar is a sign of closure or a reminder of pain. With a potent last stanza Fries writes: “The skin has healed but the scars grow deeper— When you touch them what do they tell you about my life?”
Awards and Honors
- Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts and Literary Arts Fellowship
- Creative Arts Fellowship from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts
- Twice a Fulbright scholar to Japan and Germany
- Creative Capital literature grant for In the Province of the Gods
- DAAD (German Academic Exchange) Grant
- Canada Council for the Arts Grant
- Ontario Arts Council Grant
- Toronto Arts Council Grant
Biography
In the Province of the Gods (2017)
In the Gardens of Japan (2017)
The Memory Stone (2013)
The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (2007)
Desert Walking: Poems (2000)
Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out (1997)
Body, Remember: A Memoir (1997)
Anesthesia: Poems (1996)
The Healing Notebooks (1990)
Recommended work
“To the Poet Whose Lover Has Died of AIDS”
Articles and Essays
“Inaccessible Airways.” How We Get To Next. March 5th.
“Crossing the Border While Disabled.” How We Get To Next. February 5th.
“Inclusive Art Makes Space For All Bodies.” How We Get To Next. January 8th.
“How Everyday Language Harms People with Disabilities.” How We Get To Next. November 27, 2018.
“The Stories We Tell About Disability.” How We Get To Next. October 30, 2018.
“Dear Young Disabled Writer.” Letters to the Revolution.
“How Adrienne Rich Taught Me To Drive: The Education of a Gay Disabled Writer.” The Progressive. March 29, 2012.