Kevin Stein has published six full-length poetry collections, two poetry chapbooks, three scholarly books, two poetry anthologies, and numerous poems and essays published in journals as well as anthologies. His recent publications include the collection Wrestling Li Po for the Remote (Fifth Star Press, 2013) and Poetry's Afterlife: Verse in the Digital Age(University of Michigan Press, 2010). 

 

In December 2003, the Governor of Illinois named Stein the state's fourth Poet Laureate. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Stein said his appointment as Poet Laureate was a chance to remind his fellow citizens of the "rich tradition of Illinois poetry," including the exquisite work of two poets who preceded him in the poet laureate post: Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks. "Following Gwendolyn Brooks," he says, "I realized I had to be an activist poet laureate, showing up in places where people don't expect poetry to be."

 

His work has been recognized by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as by the Frederick Bock Prize awarded by Poetry, the Fifth Wednesday Journal Editor's Prize, and the Indiana Review Poetry Prize. In addition, his collections have garnered the Devins Award for Poetry and the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award. A former Bradley University Faculty Member of the year, Stein serves as Caterpillar Professor of English at the university. 

 

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