Galway Kinnell

As a child, Galway Kinnell says, he was “shy to the point of being mutinous.” Today such a description might be applied to the adolescent writer of a brilliantly destructive computer virus. But Kinnell was born in 1927, which left him little choice but to become a poet. A highlight of his long career would have to be 1990, when his collection When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Kinnell is also prominent as an anti-war and human rights activist; his poems delve into the destructiveness of mankind toward nature and itself. “Nobody would write poetry if the world seemed perfect,” he has said, which is at least some small consolation. 1900 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-871-7400; www.plymouth.org