Gerald Stern
Gerald Stern to Read at Slippery Rock
Gerald Stern will read from his most recent collection of poetry entitled Odd Mercy on
Wednesday, January 31st, at 4 p.m. in the Alumni Room of North Hall. Students,
faculty, and interested members of the community are urged to take advantage of
this special event sponored by the The Provost' Office, The English Department,
and Sigma Tau Delta English Honorary. Gerald Stern's presence in the Slippery
Rock area represents an opportunity to bring to the campus a poet of national
reputation. Gerald Stern is a witty, popular and entertaining reader you're sure
to enjoy. Plan now to attend!
About Gerald Stern
At the time of the Fourth Annual Des Moines National Poetry Festival in 1993,
where Gerald Stern was one of three featured speakers with W.S.Merwin and
Lucille Clifton, he described his work, in the following way: "If I had to explain
my art I would talk about it in terms of staking out a place that no one else
wanted, because it was not noticed, because it was abandoned or overlooked."
If this is the case, it is nonetheless true that he has made that place known.
C.K. Williams has a different description of the place Stern inhabits: "Whatever
the reasons, Stern is one of those rare poetic souls who makes it almost
impossible to remember what our world was like before his poetry came to exalt it."
Gerald Stern has been a member of the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop in
Iowa City since 1982. His work has received numerous awards including the
Patterson Poetry Prize, the PEN Award, the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize,
the Melville Caine Award from the Poetry Society of America, The Lamont
Poetry Prize and the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets for
Distinguished Lifetime Service, among others. He has been the recipient of
a Guggenheim Fellowship and three National Endowment for the Arts grants.
In addition to these accomplishments, Gerald Stern has published twelve books
of poetry, including Leaving Another Kingdom: Selected Poems with Harper and,
most recently, Bread Without Sugar and Odd Mercy (1995), with Norton. He has
taught not only at the University of Iowa, but the University of Pittsburgh,
Columbia, NYU, and Princeton. He has held chairs at Washington University
at St. Louis, Bucknell, and The University of Alabama. He has been the subject
of a 60 minute film and an interview with Bill Moyers. A book on his poetry entitled
Making the Light Come has been written by Jane Somerville and published
by Wayne State University Press.
Though Iowa City also calls him its own, Stern is "The Pennsylvania Poet"-- having
grown up in Pittsburgh and taught at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Temple
University, and The University of Pittsburgh. He was for years the literature
consultant for the state of Pennsylvania. His work is anthologized in 50-60
anthologies of American poetry. His long poem "Hot Dog " from Odd Mercy
was published in a special supplement to The American Poetry Review
May/June 1995.
Stern's Poem Nice Mountain
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Last updated byDr. Nancy Barta-Smithon January 24, 1996
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