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POETRY-FRIENDLY BOOKSTORES |
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Bookends
232 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Ridgewood, NJ
(201) 445-0726
Bennett Books
303 Franklin Ave.
Wyckoff, NJ
(201) 891-8444
Micawber Books
110-114 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
(609) 921-8454
Montclair Book Center
221 Glenridge Avenue
Montclair, NJ
(973) 783-3630
Walt Whitman Cultural Art Center
2nd & Cooper Sts.
Camden, NJ
(609) 964-8300
Webnotions, Inc.
11 Stewart Place
Fairfield, NJ |
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LITERARY MAP |
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Available from New Jersey Council of Teachers of English. Contact: Lynn Carhart, 18 Seward Drive, Ocean, NJ 07712. |
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New Jersey, let's admit, is a mishmash that never got unified.
By its geographical situation it has always been a crossroads, a place for people to commute from, for Revolutionary armies to pass through. This makes any general idea of it difficult to grasp.
– X. J. Kennedy
New Jersey's gift to its poets . . . is that it's a place of many places, essentially amorphous, freeing us to look at the world.
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Featured Poets |
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Walt Whitman
In the early 1870s, Walt Whitman settled in Camden, New Jersey, to care for his dying mother. He spent the rest of his life there, editing Leaves of Grass and writing his final work, Good-Bye, My Fancy. |
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William Carlos Williams
One of the principle poets of the Imagist movement, William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. After receiving his M.D. he returned to Rutherford, where he worked as a physician. |
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Amiri Baraka
The poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was one of the most important figures in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. He was born and lives in Newark, New Jersey. |
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Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1940. A past National Poet Laureate and Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winner, he is the author of six poetry collections, including Jersey Rain. |
Other New Jersey Poets
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Literary organizations & centers |
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Delaware Valley Poets
Offers monthly workshops and a free poetry reading series in Mercer county.
New Jersey Poetry Society
Part of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc., New Jersey Poetry Society publishes Strophes, a journal, and sponsors poetry competitions.
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College
Sponsors a reading series; holds The Poetry Center library, which contains more than 10,000 volumes of poetry, and a full collection of poetry reference books; features the New Jersey Poetry Calendar, which lists poetry events throughout NJ; publishes books; and sponsors poetry contests.
Walt Whitman Arts Center
A non-profit, multi-cultural literary, performing, and visual arts center in Camden, New Jersey, with special emphasis on educational events for children. |
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Readings series, conferences, & literary festivals |
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DeBaun Auditorium, Spoken Word Series
Features published local writers and includes an open-microphone reading opportunity for local authors.
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival offers four days of poetry readings, panel discussions, conversations on craft and a wide array of other topics, musical performances, and storytelling in Waterloo Village.
The College of New Jersey Visiting Writer’s Series
The Visiting Writers Series at The College of New Jersey is a student-run program committed to enlarging the campus literary community. The program brings nationally-acclaimed authors to campus to read their work and share their experiences as writers. Previously featured poets include Mark Bibbins, Mark Halliday, Robyn Art, Sarah Manguso, and Brenda Shaughnessy.
Warren County Community College Visiting Authors Series
Hosted by Warren County Community College, this reading series features five readings each year. Past readers have included Philip Levine, Stephen Dunn, C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, Joyce Carol Oates, Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern, Stephen Dobyns, Laura-Anne Bosselaar, Jeffrey Harrison, and many others.
William Paterson University Writer's Conference
Each spring the English Department of William Paterson University, in Wayne, New Jersey, host an annual writer's conference. They have hosted such writers as Jimmy Santiago Baca, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Alicia Ostriker.
Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway
This annual conference is held in Cape May, New Jersey. New Jersey teachers can receive 17 hours of professional development credit. Stephen Dunn, recipient of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, will be one of this year's 30 or so workshop leaders.
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Poetic History |
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Walt Whitman House: Camden, NJ
The house has been preserved with Whitman's letters and personal belongings, a collection of rare photographs, his deathbed, and the 1892 notice of his death nailed to the front door. |
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The Graves of Poets
When he died in 1966, Delmore Schwartz was buried in Cedar Park Cemetery in Emerson, New Jersey. Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, and Allen Ginsberg are also buried in New Jersey. |
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William Carlos Williams's Hometown: Rutherford, NJ
Though schooling and travel took him far away, William Carlos Williams always returned to his hometown of Rutherford, which remained a central presence in his work. |
Save the date: On September 20 & 21, 2008 the town of Rutherford will celebrate the 125th birthday of William Carlos Williams. Learn more > |
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Visitors from New Jersey Enjoy ... |
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Most Popular Poems
1. Do not go gentle into that good night
by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night...
2. The Negro Speaks of Rivers
by Langston Hughes
I've known rivers...
3. We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool. We...
4. One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master...
5. I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America...
6. Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again...
7. somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond...
8. This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten / the plums...
9. Sick
by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today"...
10. The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...
11. Lift Every Voice and Sing
by James Weldon Johnson
Lift ev'ry voice and sing...
12. Dreams
by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams...
13. How Do I Love Thee?
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
14. What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet XLIII)
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why...
15. The Bells
by Edgar Allan Poe
Hear the sledges with the bells...
(Popularity based on Poets.org traffic data.) |
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Poems about New Jersey |
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Night Driving
by Joyce Carol Oates
South into Jersey on I-95 rain and / windshield wipers...
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day
by X. J. Kennedy
In a prominent bar in Secaucus one day...
Lucky Life
by Gerald Stern
Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors... |
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Literary journals & small presses |
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Cavan Kerry Press
Publishes both established and emerging writers, as well as out-of-print work that deserves permanence, collections of essays on the creative process, and anthologies that spotlight and support other arts organizations.
Journal of New Jersey Poets
Presents new work by New Jersey poets and is published biannually by County College of Morris.
The Literary Review: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing
Has been published quarterly by Fairleigh Dickinson University since 1957. Issues focus on introducing new fiction, poetry, and essays from many nations, regions, or languages to English readers.
Ontario Review Press
The list includes books by Albert Goldbarth, Chase Twichell, and Eavan Boland.
Ontario Review
Publishes original fiction, poetry, personal essays, drama, photographs, graphics, and interviews with prominent contemporary authors. Each issue is a blend of older, more established writers with promising younger ones.
Paterson Literary Review
Paterson Literary Review publishes poetry, fiction, reviews, and artwork by individuals with international, national, and regional reputation as well as
work by promising new voices
Raritan
Raritan publishes essays, poetry, and a limited amount of fiction four times a year: February, May, August, November.
Talisman House
Publishes William Bronk, Theodore Enslin, John Taggart, among others. |
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Writing programs & colonies |
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Fairleigh Dickinson University
The M.F.A. in creative writing is a low-residency program in which students
work closely with mentors who are published authors through distance learning. They meet in person with faculty, visiting writers, and other students during two residencies held each year. The M.F.A. degree is offered in three disciplines: Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-Fiction.
Rowan University
Rowan University's offers an innovative, interdisciplinary M. A. degree in Creative Writing and Journalism.
Rutgers University-Camden
Rutgers University (Camden Campus) offers an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for
students who want both the tools of writing and a background in literary study.
Rutgers University-Newark
Rutgers University at Newark now offers an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for
students who want to study various literary backgrounds and learn the craft of writing. |
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