6th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival

CALENDAR NOTE

The 6th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival is a free event to be held on September 26, 2009.

This one-day poetry festival begins with readings at 11 a.m. and continues with panel discussions, open readings, and the featured readings in the evening. A book signing and reception will end the program at 9:30 p.m.

This year's featured poets are Laure-Anne Bosselaar, D. Nurkse, Tim Seibles, Pam Bernard, Robert Carnevale, Martin Farawell, and Madeline Tiger.

The festival is held in the Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts at Blair Academy, in Blairstown, NJ.

The festival is sponsored by NJ State Council on the Arts & Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission.

Additional information, directions and information on previous festivals is available at http://poetsonline.org/wcpf

Glum High School Poetry Teacher

I just read a review of a new movie, World's Greatest Dad, with Robin Williams, and what hit me right away was the line at the top: "Robin Williams stars as a glum high school poetry teacher in this surrealist fable."

I taught secondary school for 25 years and I never met a teacher who could claim to be a high school poetry teacher. I may have to watch the film just to see what kind of high school has an English teacher who only teaches poetry. (All of you high school poetry teachers out there, feel free to post a comment below.)

The "glum" adjective didn't make me flinch. Teachers are a pretty glum lot, English teachers more so and poets are always moody. At least, that's what I have been told. I actually enjoyed teaching and especially enjoyed teaching poetry, but there's no movie script in that story.

I guess Mr. Clayton is partially glum because he's a writer who has never published anything.

That's it for this blog reaction - the rest of my preview is here.


Watch the film's trailer

The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College has announced the winners , of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards for 2009 and posted the rules for the 2010 contest.

The contest honors Allen Ginsberg’s contribution to American literature.

Winners will be asked to participate in a reading to take place in the Paterson Historic District.

The Center publishes The Paterson Literary Review, a literary magazine which contains poetry, fiction, reviews, and artwork by individuals with international, national, and regional reputation as well as work by promising new voices. In the past they have published poets such as William Stafford, Ruth Stone, Sonia Sanchez, Laura Boss, Marge Piercy, David Ray, Diane di Prima and Allen Ginsberg.

The Center also compiles the New Jersey Poetry Calendar, a monthly calendar that lists readings taking place in New Jersey.

Readings at the Poetry Center at PCCC

Stanley Kunitz with Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director of the Poetry Center.

Dodge Poetry Festival 2010

I have been blogging about the Dodge Poetry Festival since the start of this blog and have attended the festivals since 1988. Today in the NYTimes.com, comes word that the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival, which was "canceled" earlier this year, will probably be back in a new form and location.

The Dodge Foundation announced in May it was seeking prospective partner cities and 8 New Jersey towns, cities and organizations responded. This summer they narrowed the list to Montclair, Newark and Trenton.

The biannual Festival started 1986 and by the 2008 festival had grown to 19,000 attendees for the 4 September days at Waterloo Village in Byram Township.

David Grant, president and CEO who is stepping down in June, and Martin Farawell, the foundation’s poetry director, are planning to present the Dodge board of directors with a final proposal early in September and announce the new location by the end of the month.