Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx in 1932. She graduated from Radcliffe College and received an M.A. from Brandeis University.

She is the author of Queen of a Rainy Country (W. W. Norton, 2006); The Last Uncle (2002); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award; An Early Afterlife (l995); Heroes In Disguise (1991), The Imperfect Paradise (1988), a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; PM/AM: New and Selected Poems (l982), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Five Stages of Grief (l978), and A Perfect Circle of Sun (l971).

Among her many awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Dylan Thomas Award, the Di Castagnola Award, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Maurice English Award, the Charity Randall Citation, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She was a recipient of a Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award.

From 1991 to 1995, she served as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, and was among the staff of the Breadloaf Writers Conference for twenty years. Linda Pastan lives in Potomac, Maryland.

Read poems by Linda Pastan

Eleanor Wilner poetry has been recognized by fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and has received a Juniper Prize and two Pushcart Prizes. Her latest volume of poems, The Girl with Bees in Her Hair, was a Lannan Literary Selection for 2004. She now lives in Philadelphia and is a lifelong activist for civil rights and peace.

Kurtis Lamkin

Kurtis Lamkin is a poet as well known for his music as he is for his poetry. A master of performance, he plays the kora, a twenty-one string West African harp/lute.

His recordings include Queen of Carolina featuring kora poems that focus upon work and growth primarily in the South. His previous recording is a CD entitled El Shabazz, which is a collection of kora-poems dedicated to Malcolm X and the Million Man March. He composed the lyrics and music for the dance concert, Psychic Lover, which premiered at the Victoria 5 Theater in Harlem. His animated poem "The Foxes Manifesto," based upon the 1976 Soweto Rebellion, was aired for two years on PBS. He has performed on numerous television shows and radio show including National Public Radio.

He is also one of the featured poets on the the Bill Moyers PBS special on poetry, Fooling With Words which was recordeded at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey. Watch a video of that peformance.

Lamkin's poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines including, I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You (Simon & Schuster), Fooling With Words (William Morrow & Company), Code Magazine, and Crazy Horse. He was Poet In Residence for two years at the New School University where he taught poetry, performance and literature. He is currently working on a new kora-poem entitled "The Yam Seller," and a handbook for oral poetry called: "Live Poem: Composition, Performance and Improvisation."

His live appearances had made him a favorite at schools and cultural centers up and down the east coast. He has recently been featured at the Spoleto U.S.A., Gullah Festivals in his home state of South Carolina, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey.

POETS AMONG US

Ron Block teaches creative writing at Rowan University.His books include The Dirty Shame Hotel and Other Stories and a collection of poetry Dismal River. His work has also been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including Epoch, Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, and Ploughshares.

In addition to being a two-time winner in the Minnesota Voices Project, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship. He has an MA in Creative Writing and an MS in Television-Radio-Film, both from Syracuse University. Currently, he's at work on a second collection of poetry as well as a novel.