Paterson Poetry Prize Reading Features B.H. Fairchild

B. H. Fairchild, winner of the 2015 Paterson Poetry Prize, is reading from his most recent collection, The Blue Buick: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton & Co.) on April 9 at 1 pm at thehistoric Hamilton Club Building (32 Church St., Paterson).

B.H. Fairchild was born in 1942 in Houston, Texas, and grew up in small towns in Texas and Kansas. The son of a lathe operator, he attended the University of Kansas and the University of Tulsa. His poetry explores the empty landscapes of the region of his birth, and the lives of its working-class residents, including his own family and friends. Frequently described as a poet of the “sacred,” Fairchild’s work has gained renown for its marriage of high and low culture and art, as well as its interest in evoking beauty in quotidian memories and events. According to Paul Mariani, “Like William Carlos Williams, James Wright, and James Dickey, all writing in the American grain, [Fairchild] insist[s] on the beauty to be found in what seems to be a desolate landscape.”

Fairchild has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the recipient of the William Carlos Williams Award, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Aiken Taylor Award, the Arthur Rense Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the PEN Center USA West Poetry Award, among others. His work appears widely and he has taught at numerous institutions. He is currently a professor of English at the University of North Texas.         (Source: poetryfoundation.org )

Also reading at this event are finalists Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar (Copper Canyon Press) and Teresa Carson, My Crooked House (CavanKerry Press).

The program is part of the Distinguished Poets Series of the Poetry Center at PCCC, and is free and open to the public. An open reading follows.

Poetry workshops, conducted by B.H. Fairchild and Joe Weil are at 10 am to noon at the same location (pre-registration required; workshop fee $20, please call 973-684-6555 to check for registration availability).

Parking is available at the PCCC lot on College Blvd., between Memorial Dr. and Church St.

Visit poetrycenterpccc.com for directions and additional information.