Rudy Kikel papers (Ms.2008.029)

Biographical note

Rudy Kikel, an accomplished, award-winning poet, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942, of immigrant parents from Gottschee (Slovenia) and raised in Queens (New York) where he attended Sacred Heart of Jesus Grammar School. After graduating from St. John's Preparatory School (Brooklyn, New York) in 1959, he earned an undergraduate degree at St. John's University in 1963 and a master's degree in English Literature from Penn State in 1965. He eventually settled in Boston after graduating from Harvard in 1975, where he completed a doctorate in English literature, concentrating on nineteenth-century poetry and prose. His thesis focused on the intellectual and literary relationship of Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater.

Throughout his writing career, Kikel published his poetry in a wide variety of periodicals, including such noteworthy literary journals as the (New) American Review , Ploughshares, The Widener Review, and Shenandoah. Between 1964 and 1966, he published some of his work under the pseudonym, R. J. Stark, in the magazine One: the Homosexual Viewpoint, one of the first pre-Stonewall gay periodicals established in the United States. His work was also anthologized in various publications such as The Bad Boy Book of Erotic Poetry and Eros in Boystown: Contemporary Gay Poems about Sex.

Kikel also published several collections of his poetry. They include: Shaping Possibilities, a chapbook of twenty-four sonnets and Lasting Relations in 1980; Longdivision in 1993; PeriodPieces in 1997; Gottesheers in 1997; and Talks in the Blue in 2008. He also edited two anthologies of poetry: Gents, Bad Boys, & Barbarians: New Gay Male Poetry in 1995; and its sequel, This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys & Barbarians 2 in 2004. He was awarded the Grolier Poetry Prize in 1977.

Kikel was a graduate assistant at Penn State, a teaching fellow in General Education at Harvard, and a full-time instructor at Suffolk University. He worked for Bay Windows, New England's leading LGBTQ weekly, beginning in 1983 when it was first founded by Sasha Alyson, and is credited with naming the publication. He started there as poetry editor in 1983, promoted to arts editor in 1984, and finally assumed the position of arts, entertainment and lifestyles editor in 1992. During his tenure as editor, he became a staunch supporter of gay poets, especially of new and emerging post-Stonewall gay poets, by not only publishing their work, but also offering his encouragement and literary expertise. He retired from Bay Windows in 2004 but continued working there as a part-time contributing editor. Kikel also contributed numerous journalistic writings to Bay Windows and other LGBTQ periodicals, such as The Advocate, Gay Philadelphia News, Gay Community News (Boston), and Gay Sunshine. They include works on a variety of LGBTQ-related topics and encompass literary criticism, social commentary, interviews, and critical reviews of books and theatre. For many years, in his steadfast support of gay poets, Kikel sponsored and often personally subsidized a series of readings of gay and lesbian poets, often held at the now defunct Glad Day Bookstore in Boston and featuring such distinguished poets as Richard Howard, Jane Barnes and Thom Gunn. He also organized several gay poetry readings for Boston's First Night festivities.

Kikel lived in the Boston area with his life partner of over two decades, Sterling Giles. They were married in 2012. He was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease in 2002 and also faced cancer. He died of a heart attack at his home on May 23, 2017.