15th Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Announces Poets, Featured Readings

Martin Farawell, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's Poetry Director and Director of the Dodge Poetry Festival, has announced the complete roster of poets who will be participating in the 15th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. In partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and the City of Newark, the Festival will be held at NJPAC and at various venues in downtown Newark, NJ for four day starting October 23, 2014.

Seventy much-published, award-winning, renowned and emerging poets will be presented in readings and discussions during the 15th biennial Festival. According to Farawell, "This is the largest roster of poets in the history of the Dodge Poetry Festival and offers an extraordinarily wide range of backgrounds and styles."

A cornerstone event of recent Dodge Poetry Festivals has been a Poetry Sampler in which multiple poets give short, back-to-back readings. In recent years the Poetry Sampler has marked the official opening of the Festival and has been held on Thursday evening of the Festival's first day. This year, there will be two Poetry Samplers, one daytime and one evening, both on Thursday, October 23.

The daytime Poetry Sampler beginning at 9:30 am will feature 15 poets in back-to-back readings including Richard Blanco, who presented his poem "One Today" as the official poet at President Barack Obama's second inauguration; Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds; Mark Doty, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry and the T.S. Eliot Prize; and New York State Poet LaureateMarie Howe. Also featured in the daytime sampler will be Sophie Cabot Black, Dave Caserio,Brendan Constantine, David Daniel, Natalie Diaz, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Saeed Jones, Alex Lemon, Shara McCallum, Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Rachel Wiley.

The evening Poetry Sampler on Thursday, October 23 beginning at 7:00 pm will also feature Richard Blanco, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, and Sharon Olds as well as Eavan Boland, Ireland's most honored female poet; former U.S. Poet Laureates Rita Dove and Robert Pinsky; Pulitzer Prize winners Claudia Emerson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tracy K. Smith and Gary Snyder; andAlice Oswald, one of the United Kingdom's leading poets and winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize. Also reading will be Jan Beatty, Cathy Park Hong, Rachel McKibbens, Anis Mojgani, Aja Monet,James Richardson, Alberto Rios, Patrick Rosal, Brian Turner, C. Dale Young, and Kevin Young.

In addition to participating in readings and discussions, a number of poets have been selected to give individual Main-Stage Readings from the stage of NJPAC's magnificent 2,800-seat Prudential Hall.

On Friday evening, October 24, beginning at 6:30 pm Richard Blanco, Eavan Boland, Mark Doty, Sharon Olds and Tracy K. Smith will give Main-Stage Readings along with Kevin Young, author of eight books of poetry.

Saturday afternoon Main-Stage Readings on October 25 beginning at 3:00 pm will include Claudia Emerson as well as Jan Beatty, author of four books of poetry; and Aja Monet who in 2007, at the age of 19, became the youngest individual to ever win the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café grand slam champion title.

Saturday evening readings beginning at 6:30 pm will feature Yusef Komunyakaa and Alice Oswald as well as Marilyn Nelson, three-time finalist for the National Book Award and Connecticut's former Poet Laureate; and soldier-poet Brian Turner, winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award.

Also on Saturday evening Komunyakaa, Nelson, Oswald and Turner will participate in a special program, "Another Kind of Courage," focusing on war veterans and their families. They will be joined by veterans who've participated in the Warrior Writers and Combat Paper Projectworkshops, and by poets Jehanne Dubrow, Elyse Fenton, Charles H. Johnson, Gardner McFallas well as others.

The Main-Stage Readings on Sunday, October 26, which will take place in the afternoon beginning at 1:30 pm, include readings by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Marie Howe, Robert Pinsky, and Gary Snyder as well as Alberto Rios, a National Book Award nominee and winner of the Walt Whitman Award.

Other poets who will be participating in readings and discussions at various times throughout the four-day event include James Arthur, Jennifer Bartlett, Barbara Crocker, Catherine Doty,Camille T. Dungy, R.G. Evans, Kevin Goodan, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Ona Gritz, Tung Hui-Hu, Ishion Hutchinson, A. Van Jordan, Vasiliki Katsarou, Burt Kimmelman, Stephen Kuusisto, Rebecca Lindenberg, Jamaal May, Tomas Q. Morin, Khalil Murrell, Yehoshua November, January Gill O'Neil, Priscilla Orr, Brenda Shaughnessy, Daniel Simpson, Donna Baier Stein, Bridget Talone, Dan Vera, Gary J. Whitehead, and Sander Zulauf.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, an initiative of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation held biennially in even-numbered years since 1986, is a celebration of poetry that immerses participants in four days of readings, performances, and conversations. Prior to its move to NJPAC and Newark in 2010, the Festival was held primarily at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey. In its 26-year history, the Dodge Poetry Festival has involved more than 500 poets, including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and an unparalleled array of much-published and award-winning poets.

The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. Called "Wordstock" by The New York Times, audience members have the opportunity to hear performances from and interact with dozens of the world's foremost poets.

Anchored by events at NJPAC, the Festival will transform Newark's Downtown Arts District into a "Poetry Village," with many of the performances and readings occurring at multiple venues and cultural destinations in the city, all within easy walking distance of NJPAC. At times during the Festival ten or more separate stages will offer events simultaneously for audiences from 100 to 2,000 people, including at the Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, NJPAC's Center for Arts Education, First Peddie Baptist Memorial Church, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Newark Museum, North Star Academy, and Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral. Each evening and Sundayafternoon all readings will take place in NJPAC's magnificent Prudential Hall.

Known for its tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity, downtown Newark is located three miles from Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the largest international airports in the United States. Downtown Newark is easily accessible by public transportation via Amtrak, New Jersey Transit (NJTransit), and PATH trains, and is located at the center of the New York metropolitan area. This year, as a key component of the Dodge Foundation's commitment to a healthier environment, the Festival will partner with NJTransit to make public transportation more affordable for Festival-goers. NJTransit will offer $10 ticket vouchers for Festival participants for a round-trip ticket from any NJTransit rail station to Newark Penn Station or Newark Broad Street Station. The voucher will also be honored on the Newark Light Rail once riders arrive in Newark. Vouchers can be purchased with Festival tickets online, over the phone, or at the NJPAC Box Office.

Tickets
Tickets in all categories are now available. Prices for a Weekend Pass (Saturday and Sundayadmission) are $60 with discounted admission available at $54 for seniors and teachers with ID, and $30 for students and Newark residents. Four Day Passes providing entry to all events at the Festival, Thursday through Sunday, are $100 with discounted admission for seniors and teachers at $88 and students and Newark residents at $50.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday single day admissions are $40 with discounted one day admission available at $36 for seniors and teachers with ID, and $20 for Newark residents. Student tickets at $20 are available for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Discounted parking at NJPAC is available at $10 per day or $25 for all four days and must be purchased in advance.

Tickets to the Festival and for discounted parking are available at the NJPAC box office, 1 Center Street, Newark NJ, online at www.njpac.org or by phone at 1-888-GO-NJPAC.

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