Galway Kinnell was the second Vermont State Poet (the first, Robert Frost, held the position until his death, after which the post remained vacant until Kinnell’s appointment). Kinnell is a major presence on the American poetry scene as author, teacher, and public figure. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1927, he attended Princeton University and the University of Rochester. He divides his time between Vermont and New York City, where he is the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York University. According a statement by Kinnell at Salon.com, “There's not a specific something I'm aiming for, but there is something that's almost unspeakable and poems are efforts to speak it bit by bit, like a burden than has to be laid down piece by piece, that can't be just thrown off.”