Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox writer Gerald Daniel Stern (February 22, 1925 – October 27, 2022) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. The author of twenty collections of poetry and four books of essays, he taught literature and creative writing at Temple University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Raritan Valley Community College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. From 2009 until his death, he was a distinguished poet-in-residence and faculty member of Drew University's graduate program for a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in poetry.
Stern was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University and attended the University of Paris for post-graduate study. He received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1998 for This Time: New and Selected Poems and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1991 for Leaving Another Kingdom: Selected Poems. In 2000, Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed him the first Poet Laureate of New Jersey.
Early lifeEdit
Stern was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1925.<ref name="NYT obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="conauth">Template:Cite book</ref> His parents, Harry and Ida Barach Stern, were Jewish and immigrated to the United States from Ukraine and Poland, respectively, in 1905. They owned several clothing stores and sold other items including cigars.<ref name="NYT obit"/> Stern attended Taylor Allderdice High School in his hometown, graduating in 1942.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was initially rejected from military service due to his poor eyesight, but served in the Army Air Forces from 1946 to 1947 after the military re-examined him. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1947. Two years later, he obtained a Master of Arts from Columbia University.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name="Stern">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
CareerEdit
After earning his master's degree, Stern relocated to Europe to undertake doctoral studies at the University of Paris.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, he did not finish his degree and spent his twenties traveling between New York City and Europe.<ref name=gug /><ref name=Norman>Template:Cite news</ref> It was during this time that he started to write and publish poetry.<ref name="NYT obit"/> Stern went back to the US in 1956 and started teaching at Temple University.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He remained there for seven years and left after being unable to receive tenure. He subsequently taught at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for four years.<ref name=Norman/> After a period of paid leave, he taught at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey,<ref name=Norman/><ref name=Cutler>Template:Cite news</ref> before briefly working at Pittsburgh (his alma mater) in 1979.<ref name=Norman/> He then went to the University of Iowa at the behest of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and taught there for 14 years until his retirement in 1996. Stern came out of retirement to teach at Sarah Lawrence College for a while.<ref name=Norman/>
Stern published his first poem, "The Pineys", in 1969 in The Journal of the Rutgers University Library. Four years later, he released his first poetry collection titled Rejoicings.<ref name="NYT obit"/> His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of his second collection, Lucky Life,<ref name="NYT obit"/> which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He also authored a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He went on to receive several awards for his writing, including the 1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the 1998 National Book Award for This Time: New and Selected Poems,<ref name=nba1998/> and the 2012 Library of Congress Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Award<ref name="Bobbitt" /> for Early Collected Poems: 1965–1992. He was Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2000 to 2002,<ref name=aap /><ref>Library of Congress > accessed May 16, 2008</ref> and received the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2005. From 2006 on Stern was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.<ref name=aap>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In addition to the aforementioned academic institutions, Stern also taught at Rutgers University.<ref name=Cutler/> During the mid-1970s, he was a literature consultant for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania Council of the Arts as well as a coordinator for Pennsylvania's poetry in schools program.<ref name="Stern"/> Stern was a faculty member and co-founder of New England College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Poetry.
Personal lifeEdit
Stern married Patricia Miller in 1952. They had two children together. They divorced in the 1980s.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He was in a domestic partnership with poet Anne Marie Macari during the last 25 years of his life, and he lived in New York City and Miami Beach, Florida.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name="gug">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Stern died on October 27, 2022, at the Calvary Hospice in New York City. He was 97 years old.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name=AP>Template:Cite news</ref>
PublicationsEdit
Honors and awardsEdit
- 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship<ref name=NEA>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- 1977 Lamont Poetry Selection<ref name=aap />
- 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship<ref name=gug/>
- 1981 Melville Caine Award<ref name=gug/>
- 1982 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship<ref name=NEA/>
- 1987 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship<ref name=NEA/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- 1991 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Finalist<ref name=pulitzer>"Poetry". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved April 8, 2012.</ref>
- 1992 Paterson Poetry Prize<ref name=UGA>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- 1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize<ref name=gug/>
- 1998 National Book Award for Poetry<ref name=nba1998>
"National Book Awards – 1972". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
(With acceptance speech by Stern and essay by Ross Gay from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref>
- 2000–2002 Poet Laureate of New Jersey<ref name=AP/>
- 2005 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }} Jewish Book Council > National Jewish Book Award Winners]</ref>
- 2005 Wallace Stevens Award<ref name=gug/>
- 2012 Library of Congress Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Award<ref name="Bobbitt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Gerald Stern at the Academy of American Poets
- Gerald Stern papers at the University of Pittsburgh Library System
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