X. J. Kennedy (b. 1929). Born Joseph Charles Kennedy in Dover, New Jersey, Kennedy published his own science fiction magazine, Terrifying Test-Tube Tales, at age 12. He honed his writing skills at Seton Hall University and earned an M. A. degree from Columbia in 1951. From 1951 to 1955, he served in the U. S. Navy, at one time publishing a daily news-sheet for the entertainment-starved crew of a destroyer at sea. Kennedy notes: "Nothing I have ever written since has been received so avidly." After further study, at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Michigan, Kennedy taught English at the University of North Carolina and moved to Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1963. His first poetry collection, Nude Descending a Staircase (1961), won the Lamont Award for that year. A freelance writer since 1979, Kennedy prefers writing within the constraints of rhyme and metrical patterns. He is the author of many collections of poetry for young people including Talking Like the Rain: A First Book of Poems, with Dorothy M. Kennedy (1992), as well as several textbooks -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.