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September 27, 2006 Myra Saturen, 610-861-4112
Poet Len Roberts Awarded Prizes, To Publish 9th Book
Adding to a portfolio that includes three Fulbright grants, numerous awards and nine books of poetry, Northampton Community College Professor of English Len Roberts has again won national and international acclaim with two awards, a new book, and a reading at our country’s largest poetry festival.
Roberts’ poem “Poison Sumac” is a first place winner in River Styx’s national poetry contest. In the poem, the startling act of pulling seeds from the toxic weed provides a metaphor for handling necessary pain: “By bending down their poisonous heads, prying out one red poisonous seed at a time.” Like much of his poetry, the “Poison Sumac” is based on family tragedy, in this poem, that of the poet’s brother.
“Wassergass, 2006,” the second-place recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, an international prize, portrays how ghosts revisit the living, demanding their time: “The dead come to visit anytime they want, with no set appointment, no set time.” Roberts will read the poem at the Paterson Poetry Center in Paterson, New Jersey on November 4 at 1:00 p.m.
Roberts’ ninth book, Disappearing Trick, will be published by the University of Illinois Press in January 2007. A collection of elegies, the poems chronicle the loss of special people in the poet’s life.
At the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, from September 29 through October 1, in Stanhope, New Jersey Roberts will give readings and talks and serve on two panels.
Roberts, a native of Cohoes, New York, began writing poetry at the age of 28, in response to his father’s untimely death six years earlier. Seeking words to express how he felt, he discovered that the rhythm and music of poetry emerged.
“When I can’t get my arms and thoughts around something, I write about it,” Roberts says. “Then it surfaces, and I see it clearly.”
Roberts’ poetry earned early recognition in the 1970s from poet Allen Ginsberg, who praised its authenticity and originality. Publication in numerous national and international journals followed. A highly successful career has included six writing awards from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, a John Simon Guggenheim Award and many teaching awards, including the NCC Educators Award in 1999.
In addition to writing his own poetry, Roberts has translated works by Sandor Csoori, an underground, Hungarian poet during the Communist regime.
Although he has been writing since 1975, Roberts says that every poem is an entirely new experience. As he enters his fourth decade as a poet, he continues to seek new approaches to writing, experimenting with different forms and language.
