The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association will host a day of poetry featuring their 2019 poet-in-residence, Jane Hirshfield, on Saturday, April 6.
Hirshfield will facilitate a three-hour master class in poetry writing, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., and a one-hour poetry reading, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., at the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site, located at 246 Old Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station.
The annual poet-in-residence program is sponsored by WWBA and made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York state Legislature, and administered by the Huntington Arts Council. The program features revered and distinguished contemporary poets who continue to embody Walt Whitman’s spirit of democracy, diversity and creativity.
Hirshfield is the author of eight collections of poetry. Her other honors include: The Poetry Center Book Award; fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets; Columbia University’s Translation Center Award; and (both twice) the California Book Award and the Northern California Book Reviewers Award. In 2012, she received the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Prize in American Poetry. Hirshfield’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Times Literary Supplement, Harper’s, and many other publications.
The cost for the master class in poetry is $60 for non-members and $50 for members. The evening reading fee is $15 for non-members and $10 for members. The workshop fee includes the evening reading. Attendees also have the option of auditing the workshop for a reduced fee.
Participants may buy tickets at www.waltwhitman.org. Email events@waltwhitman.org or call 631-427-5240 x112 for more information.
