David P. Kozinski writes mostly free verse poetry, emphasizing sound and blending the patterns of everyday speech with the rhythms found in jazz and other musical forms. The work bends to the philosophical but largely eschews the didactic, and strives to reconcile personal experience with universal concerns.  Regarding Kozinski’s 2017 full-length book, “Tripping Over Memorial Day”, poet, teacher and American Poetry Review contributing editor Leonard Gontarek wrote, “David Kozinski has a genius for placing us in his poems through sound…These are smart, moving, wise, authentic poems. Put aside what you are reading and read this book.” Poet and Drexel University professor Lyn Levin wrote, “These subtle and exquisite poems hover over a world both haunting and dear…the poet’s imagery amazes and delights.” Poet and Warren County Community College Creative Writing faculty member BJ Ward wrote, “I have been aware of David’s work for years…It is fantastic to see how this book corrals the considerable power of his nuanced poems without taming the wildness out of them.”

Kozinski studied at the Ecole d’Art Americaines in Fontainebleau, France in the early 1970s. Inspired by William Matthews’ residency, he completed an internship in poetry writing with poet and English teacher Hilary Russell at Tower Hill School, from which he graduated in 1974. He matriculated at the University of Delaware. Kozinski has attended workshops conducted by poets such as Robert Bly, Harry Humes, Lynn Levin, Bernadette McBride, Louis McKee, Ethel Rackin, Len Roberts, Chrys Tobey, and BJ Ward. He won the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize which included publication of his chapbook, “Loopholes,” and received First Prizes in the California Writers’ Roundtable contest and the Delaware Literary Connection’s 2015 spring competition. In 2007 he received the Dr. Eugene J. Szatkowski Achievement Award from the Americans of Polish Descent Cultural Society (AMPOL) for his poetry and visual art. Kozinski has received three Pushcart Prize nominations.

Among many readings as featured poet, in 2017 Kozinski read his work at the Good Karma Café, as part of the Moveable Beats series hosted by James Mancinelli; at the Elkins Park Library; and at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center – all in Philadelphia. He also was featured at Main Point Books in Wayne, PA. Readings in Delaware include Irish Eyes restaurant in Milton; for the 2^nd Saturday Poets at Genelle’s Carribean Restaurant and at the Jackson Inn, in Wilmington; and at Central Perk Café in Newark.

Kozinski has conducted a poetry workshop for adults, focusing on oral presentation, at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center (2012); and workshops for teens at the Montgomery County Youth Center (2014 – 2017) and at Roosevelt High School (2016, 2017), all in Pennsylvania. He has also offered classroom presentations for middle school students at Shamona Creek Elementary School, Downingtown and New Garden Elementary School, Kennett Square, PA; and in Delaware at Tower Hill School and at the Hockessin Montessouri School.

Kozinski serves on the boards of the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center and the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, for which he is Treasurer. He is Arts Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal Online. The numerous publications of his poetry include Apiary, The Broadkill Review, Cheat River Review, Confrontation, Fox Chase Review, glimmertrain.com, Mad Poets Review, Margie, Möbius, Philadelphia Stories, Rasputin, and Schuylkill Valley Journal, in which he has been the featured poet.