Kate Farrell

Kate Farrell grew up in North Carolina. After the death of her husband, she moved with her two small children to New York City to complete a literature degree at Columbia University. There she studied with the poet Kenneth Koch who would become a frequent literary collaborator. Of her 8 books, two were co-authored by Koch: Sleeping on the Wing; An Anthology of Modern Poetry with Essays on Reading and Writing (a poetry handbook widely used in high school and college classrooms) and Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poetry for Young People, a teaching anthology with works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Four other collections match poetry from around the world with art works from the Met and the National Gallery. She also wrote the text for STICKS, about the work of her brother, the environmental sculptor Patrick Dougherty, featuring photos by James Florio, just out from Radius Books.

Farrell's book of poetry Visiting Night at the Academy of Longing was published by Lavender Ink. And she edited You Are The You, Writings and Interviews on Poetry, Art, and the New York School by David Shapiro, published January 2025, by MadHat Press.

Farrell has taught writing at Columbia University, in the NY State Poets in the Schools Program and at the New York Art Theater Institute, where she acted for a decade. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Manhattan Review, Partisan Review, Mississippi Review, Hudson Review, Harvard Review, Image and other journals. Her work was chosen for three editions of Best Spiritual Writing and a recent poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.