Montclair Library Will Host Robert Pinsky For National Poetry Month

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of the Montclair Public Library. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

On Saturday, April 1 at 4 p.m., the Montclair Public Library will be kicking off National Poetry Month with a visit from three-time U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky to discuss his wry, earthy new memoir, "Jersey Breaks,” with fellow poet Brenda Shaughnessy ("Tanya”).

Pinsky and Shaughnessy’s conversation is part of Open Book / Open Mind, the hybrid version of our popular, long-running literary conversation series. After the discussion, audience members will participate in a live Q&A session with the author, and a book signing with Watchung Booksellers will follow the event.

The program will also be livestreamed on Zoom. Registration is required. Register now at montclairlibrary.org/events. Masks are strongly recommended at all library programs.

Robert Pinsky is a poet, essayist, translator, teacher, and speaker. He is the only U.S. Poet Laureate to serve three terms. Known worldwide, Pinsky’s work has earned him the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, Italy’s Premio Capri, the Korean Manhae Award, and the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago, among other accolades. Pinsky is a professor of English and creative writing in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

“Robert Pinsky is such a distinguished poet and still a Jersey boy at heart,” says Montclair Public Library Director Janet Torsney. “There could not be a better way to celebrate the first day of Poetry Month than coming to the library to hear his thoughts about poetry and his new biography. Join us!”

Robert Pinsky is available for email interviews in connection with “Jersey Breaks” and his appearance on Open Book / Open Mind.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"In late-1940s Long Branch, a historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighborhood of Italian, Black, and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father, and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high school C student, whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write.

Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighborhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation, with influences including Mark Twain and Ray Charles, Marianne Moore and Mel Brooks, Emily Dickinson and Sid Caesar, Dante Alighieri and the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. He reflects on how writing poetry helped him make sense of life’s challenges, such as his mother’s traumatic brain injury, and on his notable public presence, including an unprecedented three terms as United States poet laureate."—W.W. Norton

Robert Pinsky is “truly the voice of the Jersey Shore."—Bruce Springsteen

Brenda Shaughnessy is the author of five poetry collections, including "Our Andromeda," which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. Her work has appeared in Harpers, The New York Times, The New Yorker, O Magazine, The Paris Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. A 2013 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, she is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Rutgers University-Newark.

The Open Book / Open Mind series is presented by the Montclair Public Library with the generous support of The Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, Josh Weston, Rosemary Iversen, and an anonymous donor. We are also deeply grateful for the in-kind donations of The First Congregational Church, Amanti Vino and The George Montclair.

In 2023, Open Book / Open Mind will continue to offer hybrid programs with Colson Whitehead ("Crook Manifesto"), Michelle Zauner ("Crying in H Mart"), Rachel Swarns ("The 272"), Lisa Belkin ("Genealogy of a Murder") and others. During the past few years, the series has hosted authors such as Maggie Haberman, Isabel Wilkerson, Ann Patchett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Charles Blow, Alice Hoffman, Christina Baker Kline, Elizabeth Kolbert, Michael Schmidt, Jonathan Alter, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, and many more.

Whether we present the series in person, online or in a hybrid format, we are proud that Open Book / Open Mind remains a Montclair tradition.

Founded in 1893, the Montclair Public Library serves the residents of Montclair, New Jersey. It has two facilities: the Main Library at 50 South Fullerton Avenue and the Bellevue Avenue Branch Library at 185 Bellevue Avenue. The Library has been changing lives every day for over 125 years through words, ideas, and community building by providing unlimited opportunities for lifelong learning, discovery, and community engagement.

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