Wayne Koestenbaum

Wayne Koestenbaum in 2007. Photo by David Shankbone. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Wayne Koestenbaum (born 1958) is an American poet, academic, and cultural critic.

Life

Koestenbaum earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

He lives in New York City, where he is Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Writing

Criticism

Koestenbaum's work, both in poetry and non-fiction, has explored the social and mental life of American queer intellectuals. His best-known critical book, The Queen's Throat, is a rigorous exploration of a phenomenon frequently discussed casually but seldom considered from a scholarly viewpoint: the predilection of gay men for opera. Koestenbaum's claim is that opera derives its power from a kind of physical sympathy between singer and audience that has as much to do with desire as with hearing. He says of the act of listening:

The dance of sound waves on the tympanum, and the sigh I exhale in sympathy with the singer, persuade me that I have a body—if only by analogy, if only a second-best copy of the singer's body. I'm a lemming, imprinted by the soprano, my existence an aftereffect of her crescendo. (42)

Koestenbaum's conclusion is that gay men's affinity for opera tells us as much about opera and its inherent questions about masculinity as it does about homosexuality.

In Hotel Theory, a critical discussion of the meaning of hotel life, and the aesthetic implications of such isolation, runs concurrently with a fictionalised account of a hotel encounter between Liberace and Lana Turner.

Humiliation, Koestenbaum's critically acclaimed disquisition on the meaning of humiliation (both personal and universal) was praised by John Waters as "the funniest, smartest, most heartbreaking yet powerful book I've read in a long time." Koestenbaum starred in a web series in support of this book, "Dear Wayne, I've Been Humiliated...", which was dubbed "the mother of all book trailers" by The New York Observer.

Poetry

Koestenbaum's poetry is often more measured than his criticism. It frequently comments on itself — on the disorderly process of poetry — as in "Men I Led Astray" (from The Milk of Inquiry):

I haven't said enough about the ragged sun,
its satisfaction in being the one to bind my life —
to bring the filthy pieces together,
on its way to more important tasks.

Recognition

Koestenbaum’s honors include a “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Prize and a Whiting Writer’s Award.

Publications

Poetry

• Ode to Anna Moffo, and other poems. New York: Persea, 1990. 
• Rhapsodies of A Repeat Offender: Poems. New York: Persea, 1994. 
• The Milk of Inquiry: Poems. New York: Persea, 1999. 
• Model Homes. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2004. 
• Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films: New poems. New York: Turtle Point, 2006. 
• Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background. New York: Turtle Point, 2012. 

Opera libretto

• Jackie O (DVD). Genova, Italy: Dynamic, 2009.

Novel

• Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes: A novel. New York: Soft Skull, 2004. 

Short fiction

• Hotel Theory: 8 dossiers. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2007. 

Non-fiction

• Double Talk: The erotics of male literary collaboration. New York: Routledge, 1989. 
• The Queen's Throat: Opera, homosexuality, and the mystery of desire. New York: Poseidon, 1993. 
• Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting an icon. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995. 
• Alice Neel: Paintings from the thirties. New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1997. 
• Cleavage: Essays on sex, stars, and aesthetics. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000. 
• Andy Warhol. New York: Viking, 2001; London: Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2001. 
• Humiliation. New York: Picador, 2011. 
• The Anatomy of Harpo Marx. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012. 
• My 1980s, and other essays. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2013.

3 POEMS WAYNE KOESTENBAUM

 

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "Outside In" at Triple Canopy (online magazine)
• Wayne Kostenbaum profile & 4 poems] at the Academy of American Poets.
• Wayne Koestenbaum b. 1958 at the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

• Wayne Koestenbaum at YouTube
• 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show
• Dear Wayne: I've Been Humiliated (Web Series)

Books

• Wayne Koestenbaum at Amazon.com

About

• Faculty page at CUNY
• Interview with Index Magazine
• Interview with Bidoun
• Wayne Koestenbaum - Notes on Affinity (Villa Gillet / Clé des langues)