Dozens Of The World's Foremost Poets Descend Upon Newark, New Jersey Next Week, October 11-14, 2012 For The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival

North America's Largest Poetry Festival Includes Readings, Performances, and Conversations By Dozens of the Leading, International Voices in Contemporary Poetry, Including:

U.S. Poets Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-Winners Philip Levine and Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-Winner C. K. Williams, National Book Award Winners Nikky Finney and Terrance Hayes, Chilean National Literature Prize winner Raul Zarita, Ireland's Most Honored Woman Poet Eavan Boland, California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and Founder of the Black Arts Movement Amiri Baraka

NEWARK, N.J., Oct. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation will present more than 100 poetry events at the 14^th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, presented in partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and the City of Newark, NJ from October 11 through 14, 2012. The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. Called "Wordstock" by The New York Times, audience members have the opportunity to hear performances from and interact with dozens of the world's foremost poets with an extraordinarily wide range of backgrounds and styles. Single day, weekend and four-day passes to the Festival are available at www.njpac.org, at the NJPAC box office at One Center Street in downtown Newark, or by calling 1-888-466-5722.

Poets returning to the Festival include former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine and current Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winner C. K. Williams, National Book Award winners Terrance Hayes and Thomas Lux, and T.S. Eliot Prize-winner Jane Hirshfield.  Poets making Festival debuts are: Pulitzer Prize finalist Henri Cole, Chilean National Literature Prize winner Raul Zurita, Ireland's leading woman poet Eavan Boland, California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, National Book Award winner Nikky Finney, Fanny Howe, and Gregory Orr. Other notables include Newark resident and Black Arts Movement founder Amiri Baraka and National Book Award finalist Dorianne Laux.  The Festival will also present a world premiere performance of selections from four-time National Grand Slam Champion Patricia Smith's book-length sequence Blood Dazzler, about Hurricane Katrina, set to Wynton Marsalis' "At the Octoroon Balls" string quartet and performed by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.  In addition to readings and performances, all Festival poets will participate in discussions and other multi-poet events. 

Anchored by events at NJPAC, the Festival will transform downtown Newark into a "Poetry Village," with many of the performances and readings occurring at alternate venues and cultural destinations in Newark, all within easy walking distance of the Center, including Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, First Peddie Baptist Memorial Church, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Newark Museum, North Star Academy, and Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral. 

The complete lineup is available at: www.dodgepoetry.org

Prudential is the presenting sponsor of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

SOURCE New Jersey Performing Arts Center