Kevin Kling Explained

Kevin Kling
Birth Place:	Osseo, Minnesota, United States
Nationality:	American

Kevin Kling is an American storyteller and a commentator for National Public Radio.

Life and career

Kling grew up in Osseo, Minnesota, and graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. He began his career in the Twin Cities during the 1990s with two plays that wrote: 21A and Fear and Loving in Minneapolis.^[1]

In 1993, Kling won the Whiting Award for drama.^[2] In 2009, he won the A. P. Anderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Literature and the Arts in Minnesota.^[3]

Kling has also made regular storytelling contributions to NPR’s All Things Considered. He has released several CD collections, including a boxed set, Collected Stories. His first published book of short stories was The Dog Says How followed by four more titles.

Kling has not been slowed in his work by a birth defect that shriveled his left arm and a motorcycle accident that completely paralyzed his right arm.

Plays

• 21A
• Fear and Loving in Minneapolis
• Home and Away
• Lloyd's Prayer
• The Education of Walter Kauffman
• The Seven Dwarfs
• Hammer, Anvil and Stirrup
• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse
• Invisible Fences (with Gaelynn Lea)

Books

• The Dog Says How, Borealis Books, 2007
• Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn, Borealis Books, 2009
• Big Little Brother, Borealis Books, 2011
• Big Little Mother, Borealis Books, 2013
• On Stage with Kevin Kling, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013

Recordings

• 1994 Home and Away
• 2001 Stories Off the Shallow End
• 2003 Wonderlure
• 2004 A Fool's Paradise
• 2004 Collected Stories
• 2007 Alive
• 2012 State Fair
• 2014 Come & Get It

Awards

• 1986 Heideman Best Short Play Award for 21A
• 1993 Whiting Award
• 2009 A.P. Anderson Award
• 2010 Storytelling World Storytelling Collection, for "The Dog Says How" ^[4]
• 2012 National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence Award ^[5]

External links

• Official website
• "The Return of Kevin Kling: A Story of Near-Death and Recovery" - All Things Considered
• The Losses and the Laughter We Grow Into with Kevin Kling - On Being
• Popmatters: Stories off the Shallow End
• Kevin Kling answers 9 questions, and, yes, Don Knotts would play him - Interview with the Twin Cities Pioneer Press newspaper^[6]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kevin Kling Returns . National Public Radio . January 2002 . September 17, 2015.
2. Web site: Kevin Kling 1993 Whiting Award . Whiting Award Foundation . September 17, 2015.
3. News: May 24, 2009 . Storyteller receives A.P. Anderson Award . September 17, 2015 . Redwing Republican Eagle.
4. Flora Joy. "The 2010 Storytelling World Resource Awards." http://storytellingworld.com/2010/ Retrieved 14 July 2017.
5. National Storytelling Network. "Circle of Excellence Award Recipients." http://storynet.org/oracle/circleofexcellence.html Retrieved 14 July 2017.
6. Web site: Kevin Kling answers 9 questions, and, yes, Don Knotts would play him. Press. Chris Hewitt Pioneer. 2015-02-25. Twin Cities. en-US. 2019-04-16.