Montclair Poetry Series Will Feature Adele Kenny and Peter Murphy

On Thursday, February 5, the Montclair Monthly Poetry Series will feature Adele Kenny and Peter Murphy. The series is at the Montclair Public Library auditorium (50 South Fullerton Ave., Montclair) at 7 pm. The series is free and open to the public. An open reading will follow.

Peter E. Murphy is the author of Stubborn Child, a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize, and three poetry chapbooks, Thorough & Efficient, Mr. Nobody and Atlantic City Lives (Forthcoming in 2015).

Peter's essays and poems have appeared in The Atlanta Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Green Mountains Review, The Journal, The Lindenwood Review, The Literary Review, The Little Patuxent Review, Rattle, Witness and elsewhere. His unique poetry writing assignments have been collected in Challenges for the Delusional.

He is a consultant to organizations including Arts Horizons, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and has been an educational advisor to Fooling with Words with Bill Moyers and other PBS poetry programs.

Peter has received awards and fellowships from The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Yaddo, The Folger Shakespeare Library, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. Retired from Atlantic City High School, he continues to teach poetry writing at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is also the founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton College which offers the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, Inservice Solutions Professional Development and other programs for poets, writers and teachers.

Adele Kenny is the author of 23 books (poetry and nonfiction). Her poems, reviews, and articles have been published worldwide, and her poems have appeared in books and anthologies published by Crown, Tuttle, Shambhala, and McGraw-Hill. She served as associate editor of The Antiquer: Fine Art & Antiques from 2000-2005 and has been poetry editor of Tiferet Journal since 2006.

Adele is the recipient of various honors and awards, including poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Arts Council, a Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, first place Merit Book and Henderson Awards, a Writer's Digest Poetry Award, and the 2012 International Book Award for Poetry. In 2011, she was honored with a Women of Excellence Award (Union County Commission on the Status of Women) for her achievements and volunteer work in the arts and humanities; she was named Poet Laureate of Fanwood by the Mayor and Council in March 2012. One of her poems appeared on the marquee of the Rialto West Theater in NYC as part of the 42nd Street Art Project, and her book Staffordshire Animals has been cited by Home and Garden Television (Episode COL-713). She received the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from Kean University.

Founding director of the Carriage House Poetry Series (1998-present),  Adele has also been director of the Fanwood Arts Council (Kuran Arts Center, Fanwood, NJ) since 1999. Active in readings and in private and agency sponsored workshops, she has worked as a Grants Review Panelist (New Jersey State Arts Council and the Union County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs), and has also been a presenter, workshop leader, and artist-in-residence for numerous organizations, including state and county Teen Arts Festivals, the NJ State Department of Education, Symposium for the Arts, and Very Special Arts Festivals (serving the handicapped). She has been featured at poetry readings in the US, England, Ireland, and France, and at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.



Library: 973-744-0500
Series hosts: Laura Boss and Maria Mazziotti Gillan