LibGuide by Kristen J. Nyitray, Head of Special Collections and University Archives/University Archivist, September 2012. All biographical information excerpted from Wikipedia unless otherwise noted.
The Poetry Center Film Archive of videotapes and audiotapes at Stony Brook University (circa 1970s), and the printing of Poetry Tapes at Stony Brook: An Annotated Catalog compiled by Joseph A. Lipari in 1980, was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 7 June 1917, d. 3 December 2000) was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.
This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 15).
Raymond R. Patterson (d. 5 April 2001) was a poet, writer and professor emeritus of English at City College of the City University of New York. He was the author of ''26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man and Other Poems'' (1969) and ''Elemental Blues'' (1983) and librettos for two operas by Hale Smith, ''David Walker'' and ''Goree.'' Mr. Patterson joined the City College faculty in 1968 and was founder of its Langston Hughes Festival, which he directed from 1973 to 1993. (Source: New York Times, 12 April 2001).
This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the Visiting Poet Series (no. 11).
Kofi Awoonor (b. 13 March 1935, d. 21 September 2013) was a Ghanaian poet and author, whose work combines the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He earned his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University.
This poetry reading was held on February 16 , 1969 at Stony Brook University as part of the Visiting Poet Series (no. 17). Access here to read an article about it published in The Stony Brook Statesman (page 9).
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (b. 1 March 1917, d. 12 September 1977) was an American poet, considered to be one of the founders of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948. He won the Pulitzer Prize in both 1947 and 1974, the National Book Award in 1960, and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977.
This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the Visiting Poet Series (no. 8).
Kristen J. Nyitray
Director, Special Collections & University Archives
University Archivist
Associate Librarian
E-2320, Melville Library
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3323
t: 631.632.7119
f: 631.632.1829
e: kristen.nyitray@stonybrook.edu
Tony Harrison (b. 30 April 1937) is an English poet and playwright. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem V and Fram, as well as his versions of ancient Greek tragedies, including the Oresteia and Hecuba. He is noted for his outspoken views, particularly against the Iraq War.
This poetry reading was held in 1978 at Stony Brook University as part of the British American Poetry Festival and the Visiting Poet Series (no. 8).
This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 7).
Denise Levertov (b. 24 October 1923, d. 20 December 1997) was a British-born American poet. Levertov wrote and published 20 books of poetry, criticism, and translations. She also edited several anthologies. Among her many awards and honors, she received the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Frost Medal the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Lannan Award, a Catherine Luck Memorial Grant, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
This poetry reading was held on October 28, 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 14). Click here to read an article about it published in The Stony Brook Statesman (page 4A).
This poetry reading was held in 1978 at Stony Brook University as part of the British American Poetry Festival and the Visiting Poet Series (no. 14).
Carl Rakosi (b. 6 November 1903, d. 25 June 2004) was the last surviving member of the original group of poets who were given the rubric Objectivist. He was still publishing and performing his poetry well into his 90s.
This poetry reading was held in 1979 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series. Click here to read the announcement about it published in The Stony Brook Statesman (page 2).
Gregory Orr (b. 1947) is an American poet. He received a B.A. degree from Antioch College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. He is a professor of English at the University of Virginia where he founded the MFA Program in Writing in 1975, and served from 1978 to 2003 as Poetry Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. He is also a columnist and editor of the magazine, Sacred Bearings: A Journal for Survivors.
This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 16).
Gerald Stern (b. 22 February 1925) is an American poet. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 of, which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection, and of a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He has subsequently been given many prestigious awards for his writing, including the 1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and a National Book Award for poetry in 1998 for his book, This Time: New and Selected Poems. He was Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2000 to 2002 and received the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2005. Since 2006, Stern has been a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
This poetry reading was held in 1978 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series.
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (b. 3 June 1926, d. 5 April 1997) was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He is best known for his epic poem "Howl", in which he celebrated his fellow "angel-headed hipsters" and harshly denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States.
This event was held on May 11, 1978 at Stony Brook University as part of the Visiting Poet Series (no. 23).
Erica Jong (b. 26 March 1942) is an American author and teacher best known for her fiction and poetry. This poetry reading was held on February 22, 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 5). Click here to read an announcement for it published in the The Stony Brook Statesman (page 3).
Galway Kinnell (b. 1 February 1927) is an American poet. He was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St. Francis and the Sow" and "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps."
This poetry reading was held on March 29, 1969 at Stony Brook University as part of the British American Poetry Festival and the Visiting Poet Series (no. 13).
Harvey Shapiro, born in Chicago, Illinois, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1943 to 1945, where he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. He received a BA from Yale (1947) and an MA from Columbia (1948). In addition to teaching English at both Cornell University (1949-1952), and as a Creative Writing Fellow at Bard College (1950-1951), he was editor of the New York Times Book Review (1975-83). Influenced by the Objectivist poets, while incorporating some of the elements of the later confessional movement, his poems resonate with universal themes of war, marriage, family, and urban tensions. This poetry reading was held in 1977 at Stony Brook University as part of the the Visiting Poet Series (no. 10).
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