South Brunswick Poetry Series Returns in January

Joel Lewis, a prolific poet and writer, and Danny Shot, longtime publisher and editor of Long Shot magazine, will be the featured readers on Sunday, Jan. 15 at South Brunswick’s monthly series of Sunday poetry readings. The program, sponsored by the South Brunswick Arts Commission, in cooperation with the , starts at 2 p.m. in the library, 110 Kingston Lane, Monmouth Junction.

Lewis is the author of Learning From New Jersey (2007), Tasks Of The Youth Leagues (2006), Vertical’s Currency (1999) and House Rent Boogie (1992). He edited Bluestones and Salt Hay, an anthology of contemporary NJ poets, as well as editing the Reality Prime, the selected poems of Walter Lowenfels, and On The Level Everyday, the selected talks of Ted Berrigan.  

A new book of his poems, tentatively titled North River Rundown, will be out this Spring from Hanging Loose Press. He has also written hundreds of articles, reviews, essays and profiles and currently is a staff writer at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.  A social worker by day, he has taught creative writing at the Poetry Project, The Writer’s Voice and Rutgers University. He resides in Hoboken with his wife, Rutgers University cinema professor Sandy Flitterman-Lewis.

Shot founded the arts and literary magazine Long Shot along with Eliot Katz in 1982. Shot’s poetry has appeared in: bum rush the page (Def Poetry Jam); Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Henry Holt); In Defense of Mumia (Writers and Readers); The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth); and the French anthology Changing America: U.S. Poems of Protest 1980-1995 (Le Temps des Cerises) Paris.

He has authored 12 Poems of Love and Terror, 12 Poems of Love and Rebellion, 13 Poems of Youth and Beauty, and What a Wonderful World (LSP). Shot has read his poetry throughout the United States, also appearing on television (WNBC, New York) as part of Felipe Luciano’s Wordchestra.

He recently read his poem Invitation to Walt to the gathered multitudes at Zuccotti Park as part of Occupy Wall Street. Shot has completed work on the graphic novel Cafeteria, collaborating with artist Cliff Tisdell. He  lives in Hoboken with his wife and two sons.

Admission to the poetry readings is free, though a donation of a nonperishable food item, which will be given to the South Brunswick Food Pantry, is encouraged.

The Sunday poetry reading series will continue through the spring of 2012 with the following featured poets:

Feb  19 – Paul Sohar and Carlos Pena Hernandez

Mar  17 – Pat Hardigree and Anna Evans

Apr  15 – Priscilla Orr and Marcia Pelletiere

May  6 – Tina Kelly and George Witte    

For more information, including directions, contact the South Brunswick Arts Commission at (732) 329-4000, ext 7635.