Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards Reading February 1

The winners of the 2019 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards will read their poems on Saturday, February 1, 2020 at the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College (PCCC).

This free program will take place at 1:00 PM in the historic Hamilton Club Building, 32 Church Street, corner of Ellison, downtown Paterson. Free parking is available at the PCCC open lot at the corner of Church St. and College Blvd.

Readers will include:
1st prize winners, Francesca Maxime, Brooklyn, NY, and Marc Harshman, Wheeling, WV;
2nd prize winner, Edwin Romond, Wind Gap, PA;
3rd prize winner, June Avignone, Rochester, NY.

Honorable mention recipients
Howard Berelson, Teaneck, NJ; Norma Bernstock, Milford, PA; Bill Van Buskirk, Bryn Mawr, PA; Helen Marie Casey, Sudbury, MA; George Drew, Poestenkill, NY; James D. Gwyn, Clifton, NJ; Charles H. Johnson and Laine Sutton Johnson, Hillsborough, NJ; Diane Kerr, Pittsburgh, PA; Mary Makofske, Warwick, NY; Marie M. Marchand, Cheyenne, WY; Elizabeth Marchitti, Totowa, NJ; Marilyn Mohr, West Orange, NJ; Gloria g. Murray, Deer Park, NY; Frank Niccoletti, West Orange, NJ; Lisa Coll Nicolaou, Fair Lawn, NJ; Wanda S. Praisner, Bedminster, NJ; Maude Carolan Pych, Totowa Borough, NJ; Ellyn Joyce Rabinowitz, Nyack, NY; Robert A Rosenbloom, Bound Brook, NJ; Arthur Russell, Nutley, NJ; Matthew J. Spireng, Kingston, NY; Barrett Warner, Aiken, SC; Tamara Watson, Brooktondale, NY; Sherida Yoder, North Haledon, NJ; and James K. Zimmerman, Pleasantville, NY.

Editor’s choice recipients—Dianne Alvine, Barnegat, NJ; Charles W. Brice and Judith A. Brice, Pittsburgh, PA; Lorraine Conlin, Wantagh, NY; D. M. Dutcher, Highland Park, NJ; Linda Nemec Foster, Grand Rapids, MI; Michael S. Glaser, St. Mary's City, MD; Christie Grimes, Sackets Harbor, NY; Diane Khoury, Cresskill, NJ; Don Lynch, Kinnelon, NJ; Sheila O'Neill Massoni, Hackensack, NJ; Marion Paganello, Fair Lawn, NJ; Natasha Rabin, Nyack, NY; Kenneth Silvestri, Nyack, NY.

You are also invited to come to the Poetry Center early that day for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Poetry Center.

A ceremony and reception in the parlor on the first floor of the Hamilton Club Building on beginning at 11:30 a.m. The Poetry Center was founded in 1980 by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, who is its executive director. The center has hosted thousands of poets over the years at readings, workshops and conferences. These include poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and others of national and international reputation, such as Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Stanley Kunitz, Gerald Stern, William Stafford, Martin Espada, and Marge Piercy. The event is free, though we ask that you kindly RSVP to sdesai@pccc.edu

The Hamilton Club Building is wheelchair accessible, and other services, including large print materials and FM assistive listening devices, are available on request (call 973-684-5444). Parking is at the PCCC parking lot on College Blvd., between Memorial Dr. and Church St. For more information, visit our website at www.poetrycenterpccc.com.

The Poetry Center is funded, in part, by Passaic County Community College, individual and legacy donations, and a grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.