Guide Biography: Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy is a journalist, literary critic, and professional educator. He has been an avid reader for as long as he can remember, and he is dedicated to writing about literature in a rich international context. Check out his Classic Literature in Translation blog at http://www.eluminary.org/b/literatureintranslation/.

Patrick’s essays, reviews, and feature articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Montreal Review, The Hopkins Review, Map Literary, and Modern Language Notes. Patrick also writes novels and short stories. His creative writing was recently honored with the 2012 Dylan Days Memorial Award in Short Fiction. Patrick has taught university-level literature courses in both the United States and Canada. He has also provided tutoring in essay writing and English study skills.

Patrick earned his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. During his time as a student, he developed research projects on French literature, Russian literature, and American literature abroad. His scholarship was recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa special commendation and a Beinecke Humanities Scholarship. More recently, Patrick has earned advanced degrees in creative writing (MFA, 2010) and English (MA, 2011).

According to Patrick, “studying literature is often caricatured as a mind-numbingly boring process, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The greatest authors I have read in translation—Balzac, Tolstoy, Kafka, and Borges, to name just a few—are hilarious, moving, and remarkably aware of the great social and cultural issues their societies faced. To be a great reader of comparative literature, it isn’t enough to read constantly. Instead, you have to treat your reading as a sort of dialogue with the past, and realize that the artistic, psychological, and moral concerns that were so alive to classic authors are no less alive today—and no less a part of your own life.”