On Thursday, March 23, host Leslie Gerber and New World Writers Night present poet Robert Kelly as the featured reader.
Readings take place at New World Home Cooking, 1411 Route 212, between Woodstock and Saugerties. This reading will begin promptly at 7, so please arrive by 6:30 for dinner. Readings include an open mic (5 minute limit) which can be poetry or prose. No admission charge; we take a voluntary collection for the writers. Attendees who wish to have dinner before the reading can call 845-246-0900 for reservations.
Robert Kelly was the 2016-17 Poet Laureate of Dutchess County. He was born in Brooklyn and did his undergraduate studies at CCNY, graduating in 1955, then spent three years at Columbia University. He has worked as a translator and has taught at Bard College since 1961, where he is Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature in the Program in Written Arts. He is a Founding Member of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. He has also taught at several other major institutions.
Kelly has published more than sixty books of poetry and prose, including Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960-1993(1995). Recent books include Opening the Seals, The Hexagon, Heart Thread, and The Sacred Name of Now. His collected essays appear in A Voice Full of Cities.
Kelly received the Los Angeles Times First Annual Book Award (1980) for Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News and the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation (1991) for In Time. He serves on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions, as well as Poetry International. He is married to the translator Charlotte Mandell.
