Fwd: @UAlbany Thurs. Sept. 4: Poet Edward Hirsch
Dan Wilcox
From: Koplik, Mark A <mko...@albany.edu>
Date: Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Subject: @UAlbany Thurs. Sept. 4: Poet Edward Hirsch
To: alban...@gmail.com <alban...@gmail.com>, in...@hvwg.org <in...@hvwg.org>, Dan Wilcox <dwl...@gmail.com>
Dear Poets,
I’m writing to invite you to our upcoming event with major American poet Edward Hirsch presenting his bittersweet and often hilarious memoir about growing up in Skokie, Illinois, on Thursday, September 4th, 7:30PM, at Page Hall on the UAlbany DOWNTOWN Campus, 135 Western Ave.
The memoir is composed of compressed pieces, often poetic, often in the form of jokes.
The event is FREE and open to the public. There is no ticketing or registration. The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza will be selling books on site for anyone who wants them. Books will be signed by the author following the event.
Thanks and best,
Mark Koplik, NYS Writers Institute, University at Albany (SUNY)
A COMEDY OF CHILDHOOD
7:30 p.m. Thursday, September 4
Page Hall, University at Albany Downtown Campus
135 Western Avenue
Albany NY 12203 See map.
Free and open to the public. No tickets or registration.
Edward Hirsch is a major American poet, advocate for the art of poetry, and president of the Guggenheim Foundation. His new memoir is My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy (2025).
Kirkus Reviews said, “Hirsch channels the voices and personalities of his Chicagoland Jewish childhood to create a memoir composed of jokes and short vignettes, one setup-and-punchline after another… sometimes silly, sometimes off-color, often Yiddish-flavored, with a penchant for puns and dad jokes that never quits…. A unique recreation of a great life in a largely vanished world.”
His 1999 book, How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry, was a national bestseller.
“Edward Hirsch is the most endearing of guides to the ecstasies of reading poetry.” -- Susan Sontag
“Possibly there is no living guide to poetry more deft and caring than Edward Hirsch." --Naomi Shihab Nye
Page Hall is located between Western and Washington Avenues, and Lake and Robin Streets. The easiest access is on the Western Avenue side. Parking is free in the University’s Thurlow Terrace Lot directly across Western from the Downtown Campus.
For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit our website. Or call us at 518-442-5620.