A little plug for the poetry series I’ve helped organize at the South Brunswick Library. It will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17, and feature none other than yours truly.
Six poets from South Brunswick, all with their own distinctive styles, will read from their respective collections of works when the South Brunswick Arts Commission presents, The Poets of South Brunswick, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 17, in the Public Library.
The program is part of a series of Sunday afternoon poetry readings sponsored by the South Brunswick Arts Commission in cooperation with the South Brunswick Public Library.
The participating poets are Ed Belding, Adam Fitzgerald, Ink, Hank Kalet, Joyce Greenberg Lott and Shandy Walton. In addition, there also will be a reading of poems written by the late Judah Jacobowitz, a longtime South Brunswick resident.
Ed Belding is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks focused on historical events in and around Central Jersey. Belding taught social studies for 19 years in New Brunswick High School until 2000, when he became an administrator at the school. A longtime South Brunswick resident, Belding’s complete collection of poetic chapbooks is available to borrow from the South Brunswick Library.
Adam Fitzgerald’s work has appeared in print and online in The Modern Review, Stylus, Tom’s Garland, Black Swan and Body Parts, which he currently co-edits with fellow New Jersey poet Joe Weil. A graduate of South Brunswick High School, Fitzgerald has been featured at the Barron Arts Center, the Fanwood Cultural Art Center and the Brookline Booksmith.
The poet Ink draws from his experiences in central New Jersey, where he can be found hugging perfect-bound and loose leaves alike as if they are not paper-cut-capable. Ink says he writes because he has to, and submits to journals infrequently because he’s lazy about postage…and mailing…and rejection. With a sense of humor as twisted as his word-choice, Ink delights in putting readers into his slightly askew, circa 1985 Reebok Hi-Tops, and walking. His poems are as easy to read as they are to understand as they are to enjoy. Published in a few journals worldwide as Andrew Feindt, he has a disorganized website at geocities.com/inkyscribbles and four self-printed chapbooks: “Drinking Coke & Smoke with Beer on the Table” (2000), “Tripped Tongues & Fallen Cases” (2003), “Inanimates” (2004), and “Words that Should Never Be Said (…to a woman)” (2006).
Shandy Walton is a writer, a South Brunswick High School graduate and a US Air Force Veteran. In August, Ms. Walton was a featured poet at the Barron Arts Center in Woodbridge, along with Dave Lancet. She also was featured at the East Orange Public Library in East Orange. She has participated in the Rhode Island Scholar Athlete Games for creative writing and also received a merit award from the National Foundation of the Arts for creative writing. She’s an avid member of ACT-SO, the Cultural, Technological, Academic, and Scientific Olympics — sponsored by the NAACP. In 2001, she won the Rutgers Newark Geraldine Dodge Foundation poetry contest. And Ms. Walton has spoken at Word Stock, a benefit for the funding of the African AIDS struggle.
Hank Kalet is a longtime South Brunswick resident and 1980 graduate of South Brunswick High School. He is the author of the chapbook, “Suburban Pastoral,” and the editor of The Other Half, a literary journal published by Voices of Reason, which uses poetry and music to raise money and awareness of hunger issues in Central New Jersey. Mr. Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and the Cranbury Press. He is also a political columnist for the Progressive Populist. His poetry and journalism have been published in dozens of small-press journals and magazines, including Big Hammer, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, the Writer’s Gallery, Big Scream, the Aquarian Weekly, the Free Press and City Belt.
Joyce Greenberg Lott taught at South Brunswick High School for 25 years. Her essays, poems and stories have appeared in the Journal of New Jersey Poets, Ms. Magazine, The Paterson Literary Review, The Times, The Writer’s Chronicle, Writing on the Edge and other journals. She won third prize in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and was a finalist for the Ragdale Foundation’s Frances Shaw Fellowship. She is the author of A Teacher’s Stories, Reflections on High School Writers and a contributor to the anthology, “Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge: Poems About Marriage.” Her chapbook, “Dear Mrs. Dalloway,” was published in July, 2004, by Finishing Line Press. In September of this year, Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on public radio.
All of the readings will be followed by an open reading.
“South Brunswick has produced some exceptional literary talent,” said Jeff Leebaw, Chairman of the Arts Commission. “We’re delighted that so many of our home town poets have agreed to come together to read for us.”
Admission to the program is free, though a donation of a non-perishable food item to be given to the South Brunswick Food Pantry is encouraged.
The Sunday poetry readings are scheduled through April of 2007: Jan. 21, Cool Women; Feb. 18, Charles Johnson; March 18, Daniel Zimmerman; April 15, Laura Boss. Readings for May and June will be announced at a later date.
For more information, including directions, contact the South Brunswick Arts Commission at (732) 329-4000, ext 7635.
Hank Kalet 