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Poetry at Highland Park Public Library

Rick Black

THANK YOU to The Friends of The Library for sponsoring poetry events!

See more New Jersey poetry events or read a daily poem.

Upcoming Poetry Readings:

Alicia Ostriker
Poetry Night Series
Tuesday, September 28, 7:30 PM

Award winning poet Alicia Ostriker, scholar and Rutgers University professor emeritis and legend will kick off the Fall Poetry Night Series. She recently published two poetry collections The Book of Seventy in 2009 and No Heaven in 2005. Her literary critical works, Stealing The Language (1986), examines the origins and meanings of contemporary women's poetry, and Nakedness of the Fathers, is a feminest treatment of the Hebrew Bible. Her poetry bites, is right on target and is always fresh. After the reading there will be an open mike and reception. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

BJ Ward
Poetry Night Series
Tuesday, October 26, 7:30 PM

BJ Ward is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize for poetry and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His three recent volumes of poetry are Gravedigger's Birthday (2002), 17 Love Poems with No Despair (1997), and Landing in New Jersey with Soft hands (1994). Bj Ward is an educator and is an Assistant Professor of English at Warren County Community College. he has served as University Distinguished Fellow at Syracuse University.

Paul Muldoon
Poetry Night Series
Tuesday, November 23, 7:30 PM

Paul Muldoon, author of more than 30 collections of poetry, is a Pulitzer Prize winner, Poetry Editor at the New Yorker and at Princeton University. He is both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 professor in the Humanities and chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts. Muldoon is an internationally recognized scholar, author and poet. He is indeed a friend to the poetry community. President of the Poetry Society, he also founded his own rock band, Rackett.

Recent Poetry Readings at the Library:

Poetry Night Series
Ed Romond
Monday, May 10, 7:30 PM

The Friends of the Library Poetry Night Series is in its sixth year and after the featured poet there will be an open mike and refreshments.

The poet's awards include fellowships from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Arts Councils and from the National Endowment for the Arts. He won second place in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition, third place in the Rainmaker's Awards at Austin Peay State University, and his work was selected for the "Anthology of Magazine Verse" and "Yearbook of American Poetry".

Romond is the author of "Home Fire" (Belle Mead Press, 1993), "Dream Teaching" (Grayson Books, 2005) and two chapbooks: "Macaroon" (1997) and "Blue Mountain Time: New and Selected Poems about Baseball" (2002). His poems have appeared in such journals as The Sun, Rockhurst Review, Poet Lore, English Journal, Barrow Street, Spitball, Lake Effect, Zone 3, New Letters, Coal City Review and many others.

Poetry Night Series
Cool Women
Tuesday, April 27, 7:30 PM

The Friends of the Library Poetry Night Series is in its sixth year and has brought more than 40 outstanding poets to Central New Jersey to read from their work at the Library. After each reading poets are invited to the open mike.

Cool Women are a group of 8 poets who have been performing together for 8 years. They are artists of the spoken word and they explore the arc of women's lives with depth and humor. Lois Marie Harrod, Betty Lies, Carolyn Foote Edelman, Maxine Susman and others will be performing.

Poetry Night Series
Adele Kenny
Tuesday, March 23, 7:30 PM

The Friends of the Library Poetry Night Series is in its sixth year and has brought more than 40 outstanding poets to Central new Jersey to read at the library. After the featured reader there will be an open mike and refreshments.

Adele Kenny has published 23 books and is poetry editor of Tiferet Journal. Her books of poetry include The Kite and Other Poems From Childhood 2008 from Finishing Line Press, Chosen Ghosts (2001), and Castles and Dragons (1990), both from Muse-Pie Press. Kenny is also director of the Carriage House Poetry Reading series in Fanwood and has published 700 articles and poems in magazines and journals. She has won numerous poetry awards including the 2007 Merton Poetry of the Sacred Prize, Allen Ginsberg Awards, and Pushcard Prize nominations.

Speak Your Heart
Teen Poetry Writing
Tuesday, March 16, 4:00 PM- 5:15 PM

Pandora Scooter will run the workshop on writing and sharing spoken word pieces that come right from the heart. No experience is necessary. The experience will open students up to the freedom of self expression and help them feel great about themselves.

Pandora Scooter is a spoken word/performance artist who has entertained at Universities, Pride and Women's Festivals and other events. She has an annual show that she curates and hosts at New Jersey Performing Arts Center called Hip Hop: Out, Loud and Proud. Her website is www.pandorascooter.com

Poetry Writing Workshop
With Poet Maxine Susman
Thursday, March 4, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Poet and English professor Maxine Susman will conduct a workshop,Write About Now. All participants will produce a poem and have a chance to read it to the group. We will meet in the Teen Room. Please register for the workshop at the front desk or call the Library at 732-572-2750.

Poetry Writing Workshop
With Poet Maxine Susman
Thursday, February 4, 7:00-8:30 PM

Poet and English professor Maxine Susman will conduct a poetry workshop, Write Abou Now. Each participant will produce a poem and have the opportunity to read it to the group. We will meet in the Teen Room. Please register at the front desk or call the library at 732-572-2750.

Poetry Night Series
Gail F.Gerwin
Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 PM

For the first time, the Poetry Night Series will have two featured poets reading. Sondra Gash published Silk Elegy, (2002), a collection of poems about immigrant sweatshop labors in Patterson, New Jersey. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Calyx, The Patterson Literary review, and US1 Worksheets.
Gail Fishman Gerwin's poetry and fiction have appeared in Calyx, Lips, Thema, new Millennium Writings, and Paterson Literary review, where she earned an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award honorable mention. she is author of the forthcoming poetic memoir, Sugar and Sand. An open mike will follow the two readings. Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Poetry Night Series
Sondra Gash - Gail F.Gerwin
Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 PM

For the first time, the Poetry Night Series will have two featured poets reading. Sondra Gash published Silk Elegy, (2002), a collection of poems about immigrant sweatshop labors in Patterson, New Jersey. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Calyx, The Patterson Literary review, and US1 Worksheets.
Gail Fishman Gerwin's poetry and fiction have appeared in Calyx, Lips, Thema, new Millennium Writings, and Paterson Literary review, where she earned an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award honorable mention. she is author of the forthcoming poetic memoir, Sugar and Sand. An open mike will follow the two readings. Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Poetry Night Series
Poet Nancy Scott
Tuesday, October 27, 7:30 PM

Join us for an evening of poetry. Nancy Scott has published two poetry collections including One Stands Guard, The Other Sleeps this year and Down To The Quick in 2007. A new chapbook, A Siege of Raptors will be published in January 2010. She is managing editor of U.S. 1 Worksheets and is a recipient of a Ragdale Residency. Sponsored by The Friends of The Library, the reading will be followed by an open mike and refreshments.

Poetry Night Series
Poet Joan Cusack Handler
Tuesday, September 22, 7:30 PM

Joan Cusack Handler has published two volumes of poetry, Glorious and The Red Canoe: Love In The Making. She has won numerous prizes including five nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Her poems have been published in Agni, The Boston Review, Poetry East, Southern Humanities Review, and The New York Times. She cofounded CavenKerry Press with her husband and has published more than 40 books.

Act Out A Poem
Writing and Acting for Kids
Thursday, July 30, 7:00 PM

Participants will bring a poem to life using their imaginations. Everyone will write a group poem and act it out. Ana Kalat, a Youth Stages representative will lead the group. For grade school children Reistration is required.

Friends Poetry Night
George Witte
Tuesday, May 26, 7:30 PM

George Witte is the author of two collections of poems, Deniability (Orchises, 2009) and The Apparitioners (Three Rail Press, 2005. One of his poems was selected for Best American Poetry 2007. His poems have been published The Atlantic, Boulevard, Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, and others. He has also been an editor for St. Martin's Press for 24 years.

See http://www.georgewitte.net

Poetry Writing Workshop
With Poet Maxine Susman
Thursday, May 21, 7:00-8:30 PM

The workshop will be in the Young Adult Room and will include writing prompts, time to write a poem and a discussion of poems. Maxine Susman, a literature and writing professor at Claldwell College, has published in several dozen journals and anthologies, including Paterson Literary Review, CHEST, Runes, Earth’s Daughters, US 1 Worksheets, Home Planet News, and Poet Lore. She has won citations from a number of poetry competitions for her poems and chapbooks, including twice from the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards and most recently from Dogwood Journal, and the Black Lawrence Chapbook Contest. Her book Gogama (Sheltering Pines Press, 2006) tells the story of her father, a young Jewish doctor in remote Northern Ontario during the Great Depression. Wartime Address (coming soon) is the true story of a British woman caught in Occupied France. A third collection will be published this fall.

Friends Poetry Night
Rick Black
Tuesday, April 28, 7:30 PM

Rick Black, an International prize winning poet, including the James W. Hackett award, sponsored by the British Haiku Society, will read poems in English and Hebrew. Black is also a journalist, book artist, and founder of Turtle Light Press. From 1989-1991 he worked as a reporter in the Jerusalem bureau of The New York Times.

Friends Poetry Night
Maxine Susman
Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 PM

Maxine Susman has published over five dozen poems in many journals and anthologies in New Jersey and nationally, including Paterson Literary Review, US 1 Worksheets, Exit 13, Edison Literary Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Ekphrasis, Earth’s Daughters, and Home Planet News. She has won citations from a number of poetry contests, most recently the Allen Ginsberg Contest, Dogwood Journal, and the Black Lawrence Chapbook Competition.
Her chapbook Gogama (Sheltering Pines Press) is about her father, a young Jewish doctor in remote Northern Ontario during the Great Depression. Wartime Address (Pudding House Press) tells the true story of a young Englishwoman living in Occupied Paris during World War 2 before escaping to Marseilles. Her current work centers on family, travel, and personal history.

Poetry Writing Workshop
Poet Maxine Susman
Thursday, November 20

Maxine Susman, poet and professor of English at Caldwell College, will be conducting three writing workshops this Fall. The author, of "Gogama," an award winning collection of poems, will give prompts and discuss editing techniques, for anyone interested in the writing of poetry. The first session's theme is rebirth. Please register at the front desk or call the library at 732-572-2750.

Friends Poetry Night
Poet Richard Tayson
Thursday, November 6, 7:30 PM

Richard Tayson is author of two books of poetry published by Kent State Press, The World Underneath and The Apprentice of Fever. He is a Chancellor's Fellow at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and is currently working on a dissertation concerning William Blake's influence on American popular culture.

Friends Poetry Night
Poet Enriqueta Carrington
Tuesday, October 28, 7:30 PM

Enriqueta Carrington, a Mexican-English writer-mathematician, is the translator of the anthology Treasury of Mexican Love Poems, Quotations & Proverbs and the poem collection Samandar, Book of Travels, by Lourdes Vazquez. Her poetry in has appeared in Pedestal Magazine, Carnelian, and US1 Worksheets in Spanish and English. The Highland Park resident is an associate professor in the Mathematics Department at Rutgers University.

Poetry Writing Workshop
Poet Maxine Susman
Thursday, October 23, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Maxine Susman, poet and professor of English at Caldwell College, will be conducting three writing workshops this Fall. The author, of "Gogama," an award winning collection of poems, will give prompts and discuss editing techniques for anyone interested in the writing of poetry. Please register at the front desk or call the library at 732-572-2750.

Friends Poetry Night
Poet Penny Harter
Tuesday, September 23, 7:30 PM

Poet Penny Harter, who just published Night Marsh and is a teaching artist for the New Jersey Writers Project will read. She has published eight books of poetry and also essays on teaching writing. An open mike and refreshments will follow.

Poetry Writing Workshop
For Adults
Thursday, September 18, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Maxine Susman, poet and professor of English at Caldwell College, will be conducting three writing workshops this Fall. The author, of "Gogama," an award winning collection of poems, will give prompts and discuss editing techniques, for anyone interested in the writing of poetry. Please register at the front desk or call the library at 732-572-2750.

Poet Jessica de Koninck
Open Reading
Tuesday, May 27, 7:30 PM

The featured poet is Jessica de Koninck. Refreshments and an open mike follow the reading.

Jessica de Koninck published "Repairs," a collection of poems about loss and healing, by Finishing Line Press in 2006. It was a finalist in the Ledge 2005 poetry competition, a semifinalist in the 2005 Black River Chapbook Contest, and won Honorable Mention in the 2005 Juniper Tree Chapbook contest.
De Koninck is director of Legislative Services for the New Jersey Department of Education and a former two-term Montclair councilwoman.
Her poems have been published in "The Jewish Women's Literary Annual," "Edison Literary Review," "Exit 13," and "Bridges." They have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Poet Daniel Zimmerman
Open Reading
Tuesday, April 22, 7:30 PM

The featured poet is Daniel Zimmerman. Refreshments and an open mike follow the reading.

Daniel Zimmerman, chairperson of the English Department at Middlesex County College, is author of the poetry collection "Post-Avant," published by Pavement Saw Press 2001, with an introduction by the poet Robert Creeley. Has he been editor of the single issue journals, "The Western Gate" and "Brittannia" and has served as associate editor of "Anonym," which first published Ezra Pound's last canto.
His work is included in the anthology "The Poets of New Jersey" and the journals Chain, Tinfish, Chelsea, New York Quarterly, Rubber Chicken and many others.

Poet Kathleen Graber
Open Reading
Tuesday, March 25, 7:30 PM

The featured poet is Kathleen Graber. Refreshments and an open mike follow the reading.

Kathleen Graber, currently a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, is author of the poetry collection "Correspondence," which is winner of the 2005 Saturnalia Books Poetry prize.
A graduate of New York University's Creative Writing Program, she also has taught writing at NYU. Graber is the recipient of fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her work has appeared in "The New Yorker," "Ploughshares," "The American Poetry Review," "The Georgia Review," "The Hudson Review," "Washington Square," "Bucks County Review," "Tiferet," "Arts" and "Dragonfire."
"'Correspondence' is a fresh accomplishment, swift with feeling and intelligence, the work of a restless critical mind mapping its way toward a means to bear the weight of love," said poet Mark Doty.
The poet will be the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholar for 2008-2009 and will join the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University as an assistant professor of English in the Graduate Creative Writing Program.
More information about the poet at http://www.princeton.edu/arts/arts_at_princeton/creative_writing/professor_bios/graber/

Poetry Writing Workshop
Maxine Susman
Thursday, February 21, 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Award winning poet Maxine Susman will conduct a poetry workshop for serious poets and those returning to writing poetry. Please register by calling the library at (732) 572-2750.

An associate professor of English at Caldwell College, Susman will give prompts to encourage fresh poems from the group and give editing suggestions. The poet is author of "Gogama", a chapbook about her father's life in a depression-era logging town in rural Canada. She is currently working on the life of a British friend who lived through World War II.

Poetry Reading
Nancy Scott
Tuesday, November 27, 7:30 PM

Featured poet Nancy Scott will read at 7:30 PM, followed by an open mike and refreshments.

Nancy Scott, an advocate for foster and adoptive children, the homeless and the mentally ill, recently published "Down to the Quick," a collection of poetry that gives voice to the victimized. she is the current managing editor of U.S. 1 Worksheets and a recipient of a Ragdale Residency. The poet's work has appeared in Witness, Slant, the Journal of New Jersey Poets and U.S. 1 Worksheets.
"From the battles for civil rights and equal right, to war and its aftermath, to the enduring tragedies of drugs, racism, poverty and disease that play out daily in American cities, to the interior dramas of her life, Nancy Scott opens our eyes through the compassionate lens of her poetry," said Sander Zulauf, editor of Journal of New Jersey Poets. (Library Journal's Top Ten Poetry Picks for 2006).
Hear poems by Nancy Scott at http://pplpoetpodcast.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/nancy-scott/

Poetry Reading
Stuart Greenhouse
Tuesday, October 23, 7:30 PM

Featured poet Stuart Greenhouse will read at 7:30, followed by an open mike and refreshments.

Stuart Greenhouse, author of "What Remains," a chapbook published in 2005 by the Poetry Society of America, is known as a lyrical poet. His poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Bellingham Review, Fence, Paris Review and Ploughshares. He received his M.F.A. from New York University.
"It is edgy and wise, personal and social, strange and intimate," poet Brenda Hillman said in the introduction of "What Remains." "Neither easy nor safe, it renders experience in a way that shows a shimmering, versatile engagement with the daily world and with current exploratory idioms."
Visit the poet's blog at http://stuartgreenhouse.blogspot.com/

Poetry Reading
Wanda Praisner
Tuesday, September 25, 7:30 PM

Featured poet Wanda Praisner will read at 7:30 PM, followed by an open mike and refreshments.

Wanda Praisner's latest two collections of poetry are "On the Bittersweet Avenues of Pomona" (2005, winner of the Spire Press Poetry Chapbook Completion), and "A Fine and Bitter Snow" (2003). A retired educator, Praisner is currently a Poet in Residence for the New Jersey State Council of the Arts. She has been nominated three times for a Pushcart prize and has received the Kudzu Prize, the Maryland Review Egan Award and First Prize in Poetry at The College of New Jersey Writers' Conference. Her poems have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Lullwater Review, Margi, New York Magazine and Slant. Praisner is a recipient of poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
"Wanda Praisner's poems in "On the Bittersweet Avenues of Pomona remind us how delicately tangled are the roots of family and individual identity," poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan said. "She takes us into the rich and often frightening country of coming of age."
For more information on this poet, go to http://www.spirepress.org/praisner.html

Alicia Suskin Ostriker
Poetry Reading
Tuesday, May 15, 7:30 PM

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is the featured poet.

Following the reading, there will be a book signing, open mike and refreshments.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is a major American poet and critic who was twice nominated for a National Book Award for "The Crack in Everything" and "The Little Space: Poems Selected and New." She is the author of eleven volumes of poetry including her most recent "No Heaven" (2005), "The Volcano Sequence" (2002) and "The Imaginary Lover" (1986), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award. As a critic, she is the author of two volumes on women's poetry, "Writing Like a Woman" and "Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America." Her books on the Bible include "Feminist Revision and the Bible" and "The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions."
Visit Ms. Ostriker's website at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~ostriker/home.htm

Christopher Bursk
Poetry Reading
Thursday, April 12, 7:30 PM

Christopher Bursk is the featured poet.

Following the reading, there will be a book signing, open mike and refreshments.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Christopher Bursk's most recent collections of poetry include, "The First Inhabitants of Arcadia" (2006), "Improbable Swervings of Atoms" (2004), "Ovid at Fifteen" (2003) and "Cell Count" (1997). The poet is a recipient of National Endowment of the Arts, Guggenheim and Pew fellowships. Bursk is the winner of the 2004 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. He is a professor of English at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania and has been recognized for his work with prisoners, the homeless, food banks and women's shelters. His poems follow his own development as a child, a reader and a poet.

Therese Halscheid
Poetry Reading
Tuesday, March 27, 7:30 PM

Therese Halscheid is the featured poet.
Following the reading, there will be a book signing, open mike and refreshments.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Therese Halscheid is the author of three poetry collections: "Powertalk" (1995); "Without Home" (2001); and "Uncommon Geography" (2006).

Halscheid, an award-winning poet and artist in residence for the Camden county Cultural & Heritage Commission, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is author of three poetry collections, "Powertalk" (1995), "Without Home" (2001) and "Uncommon Geography" (2006). She has given up many of her earthly possessions to become a full time writer and says she wouldn't call her nomadic lifestyle a sacrifice. Also awarded the 2005 Dodge Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, Halscheid became a full time house-sitter in 1993 so that she could travel the country and experience diverse environments. She has written in rugged swamps in Florida, an elk farm in Pennsylvania, a log cabin in the NJ Pine Barrens and an adobe home in New Mexico. Some of her poems depict her time in Andrew Wyeth's home and the Brandywine Museum.
The poet has also been an artist in residence at Acadia National Park in Maine, and while house-sitting at the New Jersey shore she facilitated writing workshops at the Ocean City Art Center and Atlantic Cape Community College. Before giving up her apartment and most possessions in Haddon Township to write full time, she was a teacher for thirteen years in the Franklin and Haddon school systems.

Maxine Susman, Poet
Open Reading (2/1/2007)
Thursday, February 1, 7:30 PM

Poetry reading, held on 2/1/07.
FREE! Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
Poetry reading by Maxine Susman of Highland Park. An open mike, book signing and refreshments followed the reading.

Maxine Susman of Highland Park recently published the chapbook "Gogama", about her father. Ben Susman traveled to a French Canadian logging community during the Great Depression to live and work as a doctor.

In understated but powerful language, the book describes her father's trial by fire in a rural backwoods. The poet, in her mind's eye, watches her father as a young man, honing his life saving skills in the most difficult of places.

Published by Sheltering Pines Press, "Gogama" was a finalist in the 2005 First Annual Chapbook Competition.
Susman teaches writing and literature at Caldwell College.

Ed Romond, Poet
Open Reading (11/28/2006)
Tuesday, November 28, 7:30 PM

Held on Tuesday, 11/28/2006 at 7:30 PM.
FREE! Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.
Poetry reading by Ed Romond. An open mike, book signing and refreshments followed the reading.

The poet's awards include fellowships from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Arts Councils and from the National Endowment for the Arts. He won second place in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition, third place in the Rainmaker's Awards at Austin Peay State University, and his work was selected for the "Anthology of Magazine Verse" and "Yearbook of American Poetry".

Romond is the author of "Home Fire" (Belle Mead Press, 1993), "Dream Teaching" (Grayson Books, 2005) and two chapbooks: "Macaroon" (1997) and "Blue Mountain Time: New and Selected Poems about Baseball" (2002). His poems have appeared in such journals as The Sun, Rockhurst Review, Poet Lore, English Journal, Barrow Street, Spitball, Lake Effect, Zone 3, New Letters, Coal City Review and many others.
Visit Mr. Romond's website at http://www.edwinromond/.