News Release

Poet Kenneth Koch Delivers Inaugural Lecture in Memory of Joshua Ringel

The Ringel family has established the fund in memory of Joshua Ringel, whose life was tragically cut short two months before his 28th birthday in an October 1996 motorcycle accident. Josh, a devoted teacher with a passion for poetry, was a student in Gilman Middle School when he attended Johns Hopkins' Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth, a summer program for academically talented youth. Ringel attended Columbia University where he studied poetry under Koch.

Joshua's family hopes the annual lecture will offer students and teachers an opportunity to understand and explore imaginative writing. The lecture and the fund is administered by Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York and IAAY.

Kenneth Koch, the first Joshua Ringel Memorial lecturer, has received the Bollingen Prize in American Poetry (1995) and the Bobbitt Prize for Poetry (1996). Besides poetry, Koch has written many books on teaching creative writing to children. Many educators believe his 1970 book, Wishes, Lies and Dreams revolutionized the teaching of writing to children. Koch has two new books coming out this spring: Making Your Own Days: Reading and Writing Poetry, a guide for a general audience and Straits, a new book of poems. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Teachers & Writers Collaborative has been sending writers like Grace Paley, June Jordan, Kenneth Koch, Philip Lopate, Victor Hernandez Cruz and Rosellen Brown into schools and other community sites for over 30 years. T&W also publishes books and magazines on teaching and writing. T&W's Center for Imaginative Writing is a resource library and meeting place for students, teachers, writers and the general public.

The Institute For the Academic Advancement of Youth at The Johns Hopkins University identifies, nurtures and develops academic talent in precollegiate students. IAAY sponsors summer academic and distance education programs; talent identification testing; research and public policy initiatives and serves as a consultant and resource to parents and families of academically talented youth.