The Alin Papazian Poetry Center Memorial Fund Honors Former Arts Administrator

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community (PCCC) received a $10,000 donation from Albert Papazian in honor of his wife, Alin, who worked at the Center as an arts administrator for nineteen years. The Alin Papazian Poetry Center Memorial Fund, set up as an endowment through the College Foundation, will support Poetry Center programming. 

A trailblazer in her family, Alin emigrated from Turkey to the U.S. in 1956, at the age of 17, to attend Vassar College on scholarship.  After graduating from college, Alin moved to New York City and worked as a physical chemist for ten years at the Thomas J. Watson IBM Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, at a time when it was unusual for a women to get a research job in the hard sciences. She holds two patents.

Alin married Albert in 1965, and had two children, Elizabeth and Gregory. While her children were young, she held part-time jobs in computer programming and in a lab specializing in AIDS research.  A former resident of Ridgewood, NJ, Alin gave back to her community through volunteer work, which included organizing performing arts events. This led to her taking a job in 1991, as an assistant director in the Cultural Affairs Department at PCCC, where she worked until her retirement in 2010. She loved working in the department, especially on Poetry Center programming, and her energy and organizational skills were legendary throughout the College. 

Alin Papazian with her husband, Albert, at her retirement party from Passaic County Community College on June 8, 2010. The Alin Papazian Poetry Center Memorial Fund, set up by Albert as an endowment through the College Foundation, will support Poetry Center programming, including workshops, readings, a literary magazine and contests. 

“Alin’s intelligence, patience and devotion were treasured by the Cultural Affairs family, as she called us.  I am grateful for all that she contributed to the Poetry Center and my life,” said Maria Mazziotti Gillan, executive director of Cultural Affairs at PCCC and founder of the Poetry Center.  Since its founding in 1980, the Center has hosted thousands of poets of national and international reputation through workshops, readings and conferences, publishes the Paterson Literary Review and other anthologies, coordinates four literary contests, and partners with community organizations to run arts programming.

2017 Paterson Poetry Prize Winner & Honor Books

The 2017 Paterson Poetry Prize winner is Kim Addonizio for her collection Mortal Trash (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY).

Honor Books

• Kevin Carey, Jesus Was a Homeboy (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ) 

• Dante Di Stefano, Love Is a Stone Endlessly in Flight (Brighthorse Books, Omaha, NE)

• Gary Fincke, Bringing Back the Bones: New and Selected Poems (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, Nacogdoches, TX)

• M. L. Liebler, I Want to Be Once (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)

• Colleen J. McElroy, Blood Memory (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA)

• Yehoshua November, Two Worlds Exist (Orison Books, Asheville, NC)

• Brynn Saito, Power Made Us Swoon (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA)

Winners of the 2017 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards

2017 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards

Winners:

First Prize: Howard Berelson, Teaneck, NJ, “Last Night”

Robert A. Rosenbloom, Bound Brook, NJ, “Dear Amy”

 

Second Prize:  Eileen Van Hook, Wanaque, NJ “Thanksgiving Memory”

Third Prize: Phillipa Scott, West Orange, NJ, “Hoboken, 1990”

Honorable Mention:

• Eric Berlin, Baldwinsville, NY, “The Binding”

• Roberta Bisgyer, Stamford, CT, “pretty is as pretty does”

• Gina Bortolussi, Haworth, NJ, “Barnes Avenue”

• R. Bremner, Glen Ridge, NJ, “Uncle Harold and Uncle Raymond”

• Gil Fagiani, L.I.C., NY, “Passing”

• Christopher Fahy, Thomaston, ME, “Departure”

• Carlos Andrés Gómez, Forest Hills, NY, ”The Afternoon You Moved Out”

• Eric Greinke, Rockford, Michigan, “Paternity”

• James D. Gwyn, Clifton, NJ, ”My Father Plays the Trombone”

• M.J. Harris, Upper Montclair, NJ, “Humanity”

• Josh Humphrey, Kearny, NJ, “River Jumpers”

• Leah Johnston, Montclair, NJ, “The Old Photo”

• Adele Kenny, Fanwood, NJ, “The Way”

• Barbara Krasner, Somerset, NJ, “Because I’m Jewish”

• Leonard Kress, Bloomingdale, NJ, “I Was There Before I Wasn’t”

• Stuart Leonard, Garwood, NJ, ”Liberty Halves”

• Antoinette Libro, Sea Isle City, NJ, “Diner Daydreams”

• Elizabeth Marchitti, Totowa, NJ, “My Sister Doesn’t Write Poems”

• Pat Mottola, Cheshire, CT, "I Go Back”

• John Smith, Frenchtown, NJ,  “Would Be Sam”

• Carole Stone, Verona, NJ, “Being Old”

• Muriel Harris Weinstein, Great Neck, NY, “Momma’s Last Stand”

• Sherida Yoder, North Haledon, NJ,  “As Usual”

Editor’s Choice:

• Donna L. Emerson, Petaluma, CA, “Shining Brown Hair”

• Maria Fama, Philadelphia, PA, “Cu Gesù Mi Curcu”

• Nancy Lubarsky, Cranford, NJ, ”Origin Story”

• Kenneth Silvestri, Nyack, NY,  “The fate of my maternal side”

• Al Tacconelli, Wynnewood, PA, “Surprise Pizzelle”

• Kelly Terwilliger, Eugene, OR, “Some Winter”

• Neal Zirn, Denver, CO,  “Don’t Tell Anyone I’m in Mensa”

Winners and Finalists for the 2017 Paterson Fiction Prize

The 2017 Paterson Fiction Prize winner for 2017 is Swimming in Hong Kong by Stephanie Han (Willow Springs Books, Spokane, WA).

 

FINALISTS:

• Swallowed by the Cold by Jensen Beach (Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN)

• The Loss of All Lost Things by Amina Gautier (Elixir Press, Denver, CO)

• Scary Old Sex by Arlene Heyman (Bloomsbury USA, New York, NY)

• Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)

• The Silver Baron's Wife by Donna Baier Stein (Serving House Books, Florham Park, NJ)

• The Good Life by Marian Thurm (The Permanent Press, Sag Harbor, NY)

Winners of the 2017 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People

Winners of the 2017 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People:

K – Grade 3: The Music in George's Head by Susanne Slade (Calkins Creek, Honesdale, PA)

Grades 4 - 6:  Catching a Storyfish by Janice N. Harrington (Word Song, Honesdale, PA) 

Grades 7 - 12:  Blood Brother by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace (Calkins Creek, Honesdale, PA)
 

Honorable Mention:

• At Night by Helga Bansch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Grand Rapids, MI)

• Where Love Begins by Helen Nieto Phillips (Lectura Books, Los Angeles, CA)

• Fearless Flyer by Heather Lang (Calkins Creek, Honesdale, PA)

• Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes (Word Song, Honesdale, PA)

• Brown v. Board of Education by Susan Goldman Rubin (Holiday House, Inc., New York, NY)

• Vietnam: A History of a War by Russell Freedman (Holiday House, Inc., New York, NY)

Winners of the 2016 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards

The Poetry Center at PCCC is proud to announce the
2016 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARD WINNERS

FIRST PRIZE
Ann Clark, Dexter, NY, “Pretend” and Annie Lanzillotto, Yonkers, NY, “Diminished Capacity, an Indictment”

SECOND PRIZE
Lynne McEniry, Morristown, NJ, “Splinter”

THIRD PRIZE
Maxine Susman, Princeton, NJ, “Thirteen”
                    
HONORABLE MENTION

         Stanley H. Barkan, Merrick, NY,  “Clotheslines” 
         R. Bremner, Glen Ridge, NJ,  “Slow Drip” 
         Linda A. Cronin, in memory of (1970-2016)    “One Day at a Time” 
         Lydia Distefano Thiel  “ Journey to Franklin Street”
         R.G. Evans, Elmer, NJ, “Eight Million Breaths A Year”
         James D. Gwyn, Clifton, NJ,  “My Mother Comments on My Poetry”
         Matt Hohner, Baltimore, MD, “Beaver Dam, 1987”
         Jean Hollander, Hopewell, NJ, “Riding Backwards”
         Barbara Krasner, Somerset, NJ, “Grandma Ruth” 
         Annette Krizanich, Vestal, NY , “Talking about Sex with My Mother”
         Michelle Lerner, Flanders, NJ, “Thing Is” 
         Antoinette Libro, Sea Isle City, NJ, “The Last Party” 
         Bruce Lowry, Summit, NJ, “Typewriters” 
         Nancy Lubarsky, Cranford, NJ, “The Record”
         Francesca Maxime, Brooklyn, NY,  “What I Want”            
         Greg Moglia, Huntington, NY,  “Kitchen” 
         Edwin Romond, Wind Gap, PA, “If a Former Student Were Being Recruited by ISIS”
         Robert A. Rosenbloom, Bound Brook, NJ,  “Dear Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield”
         Arthur Russell, Nutley, NJ, “The Whales Off Manhattan Beach Breaching in Winter” 
         Dave Seter, Petaluma, CA, “Jungleland’s Empty Sky” 
         John Sibley Williams, Milwaukie, OR,  “Once, When We Were Briefly Beautiful"
         Lydia Distefano Thiel, Mentor, OR, “Journey to Franklin Street”
        Arne Weingart, Chicago, IL , “The Old Poets in Line at the Urinals at the Writers' Conference”
        Sherida Yoder, North Haledon, NJ, "Teaching Romeo and Juliet” 
        Neal Zirn, Denver, CO,  “Notes from Assisted Living” 

The Award Winners’ Reading will be February 4, 2017 at the Hamilton Club Building, 32 Church Street, Paterson, NJ.

ANNOUNCING THE 2016 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

THE 2016 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE is awarded in each grade category for books, which in the opinion of our judges, are the most outstanding books for young people published in that year. 

Grades Pre-K – 3
Wendy Marloe, Sanctuary (Marloe Press, New York, NY)     
Laurie Wallmark, Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine (Creston Books/Worzalla Books, Stevens Point, WI)

Grades 4 – 6
Ronald Kidd, Night on Fire (Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, IL)
Michaela MacColl and Rosemary Nichols, Freedom’s Price (Calkins Creek, an Imprint of Highlights, Honesdale, PA)

Grades 7 – 12
Chris Scofield, The Shark Curtain (Black Sheep/Akashic Books, New York, NY)
Valynne E. Maetani, Ink & Ashes (Tu Books/Lee & Low Books, Inc. New York, NY)

Honorable Mention - Paterson Prize For Books For Young People

• Jane Bahk, Juna’s Jar (Lee & Low Books, Inc., NY, NY)
• Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Janine. (Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, IL)
• Alison Hart, Finder, Coal Mine Dog (Peach Tree Publishers, Atlanta, GA)
• Mary Daniel Hobson and Anna Isabel Rauh, The Wolf Who Ate the Sky (Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA)
• Sirui Li, The Lucky Chipmunk (Far Far Away Graphic Design Studio, Canada)
• Julie Paschkis, P. Zonka Lays an Egg (Peach Tree Publishers, Atlanta, GA)
• Mariko Tatsumoto, Ayumi’s Violin (Ichiban Books)

THE 2016 PATERSON FICTION PRIZE WINNER

THE 2016 PATERSON FICTION PRIZE WINNER is Angela Flournoy for The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY).

Angela Flournoy's The Turner House is a fierce and tender debut novel about
the complex but enthralling family of thirteen siblings and their relationships to each
other interwoven with the history of their city Detroit and its impact on them. 
Angela Flournoy is the literary anthropologist of Detroit, not so different from the way
a young Philip Roth was the literary anthropologist of Newark.
    — Laura Boss, Judge         

FINALISTS

Elisa Albert, After Birth (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY)

Paul Beatty, The Sellout (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)

Lisa Gornick, Louisa Meets Bear (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)

Jessamyn Hope, Safekeeping (Fig Tree Books, Bedford, New York)

James McManus, The Education of a Poker Player (BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester, New York)

Richard Wagamese, Medicine Walk (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN)

For more information, call the Poetry Center at 973-684-6555

The Poetry Center was named a Distinguished Arts Project and awarded several Citations of Excellence,
and is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State,
a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
 

Mark Doty Is the 2016 Paterson Poetry Prize Winner

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College is pleased to announce that the 2016 Paterson Poetry Prize winner is Mark Doty for Deep Lane (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY).

In Deep Lane, Mark Doty writes of "the wild unsayable," yet manages in this brilliant book to find the precise words to describe what it means to be alive and human with all our flaws. He leads us on a brave journey through grief and loss and joy, to all that lies below the surface of our lives, all the hard-earned moments that redeem us.

FINALISTS for 2016 are:

• Reginald Dwayne Betts, Bastards of the Reagan Era (Four Way Books, New York, NY)
• Tony Hoagland, Application for Release from the Dream (Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN)
• Patricia Spears Jones, A Lucent Fire: New & Selected Poems (White Pine Press, Buffalo, NY)
• Adele Kenny, A Lightness, A Thirst, or Nothing at All (Welcome Rain Publishers, New York, NY)
• Richard Michelson, More Money Than God (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA)
• Vivian Shipley, Perennial (Negative Capability Press, Mobile, AL)

The Paterson Poetry Prize of $1000 is given annually by the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College to a book of poetry (48 pages or more) published in the previous year, with a minimum press run of 500 copies.

The Poetry Center was named a Distinguished Arts Project and awarded several Citations of Excellence, and is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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THE 2015 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS

THE 2015 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS

FIRST PRIZE

Carlton D. Fisher, Watertown, NY, “The Young Suicide’s World Atlas”

Lisa Coll Nicolaou, Fair Lawn, NJ, “My true religion is kindness”

SECOND PRIZE

Mary Makofske, Warwick, NY, “In My Mother’s Kitchen”

Carole Stone, Verona, NJ, “Knowledge”

THIRD PRIZE

Gail Fishman Gerwin, Morristown, NJ, “A State in Mind”

Donna Baier Stein, Bernardsville, NJ, “Cover-Ups”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Howard Berelson, Teaneck, NJ, “Kaddish for You”
• Ann Clark, Dexter, NY, “Permanent Record”
• Mary Crosby, Ringwood, NJ, “Big Sky Country”
• Mary Kennedy Eastham, San Jose, CA “A Hy,mn for Wish”
• Donna L. Emerson, Petaluma, CA, “First Day of Kindergarten and Eleven Years Later”
• Brian Faneilli, Carbondale, PA, “Immigrant Names”
• Deborah Gerrish, Murray Hill, NJ, “The Anointed Cow”
• James D. Gwyn, Clifton, NJ, “Madison Avenue Doesn’t Speak to Me”
• Barbara Hoffman, West Babylon, NY, “Burnt Offerings”
• Josh Humphrey, Kearny, NJ, “Rena Stoll on the Titanic”
• Annette Krizanich, Vestal, NY, “Apology to my Mother”
• Annie Lanzillotto, Yonkers, NY, “My Grandmother’s Handwriting “
• Greg Moglia, Huntington, NY, “The Lover’s Gift”
• Gloria G. Murray, Deer Park, NY, “Rejection alamode”
• Howard Nelson, Moravia, NY ,“Morning Mass”
• Edwin Romond, Wind Gap, PA, “Coda”
• Penelope Scambly Schott, Portland, OR, “Dahlia”
• Al Tacconelli, Wynnewood, PA, “Foraging Frittata”
• Lynne Viti, Westwood, MA, “Pa tissie re”
• Neal Zirn, Denver, CO “New to Single Parenting”

EDITOR’S CHOICE

• Linda A. Cronin, Cedar Grove, NJ, “My Father Teaches Me About Desire”
• Suzanne Rae Deshchidn, Swartswood, NJ, “Cradleboards”
• Maria Fama, Philadelphia, PA, “Cuore Di Leone”
• Martin Golan, Verona, NJ, “Glimpse of a Father, Hiding”
• Charles H. Johnson, Hillsborough, NJ, “Cezanne in a Dumpster”
• Antoinette Libro, Sea Isle City, NJ, “Adonis of the Discarded”
• Maria Lisella, Long Island City, NY, “Gyroscope”
• Elizabeth Marchitti, Totowa, NJ, “Mother’s Snuggies”
• Frank L. Niccoletti, West Orange, NJ, “Grade 5: The Poem About The Blue Leaf”
• Joan Page-Durante, Ringwood, NJ, “Ode to Yo-Yo Ma”
• Maude Carolan Pych, Totowa Borough, NJ, “The Other Woman”
• Jim Reese, Yankton, SD, “This isn’t Dress Rehearsal”
• Myra Shapiro, New York, NY, “Chenille//Caterpillar//Chenille”
• Donna Spector, Warwick, NY, “All That Remains”
• Eileen VanHook, Wanaque, NJ, “Uncle Jim”
• Peggy Vassalo, West Orange, NJ, “I Remember Louis at the Funeral Home…”
• Edytta Anna Wojnar, Ringwood, NJ, “Doing Dishes with My Son”
• Sherida Yodar, North Haledon, NJ ,“Mrs. Bennett”

Award Winners’ Reading — February 6, 2016, at the Hamilton Club Building, 32 Church Street, 2nd Floor, Paterson, NJ

THE 2015 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE

THE 2015 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE

B. H. Fairchild, The Blue Buick: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
In The Blue Buick: New and Selected Poems, B.H. Fairchild displays a candidness and spontaneity that is rare. There is an excitement that ripples through his work. His voice is unflinchingly direct but tender, and he is fearless in his willingness to engage in even the most controversial subjects.

Finalists

• Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar (Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA)
• Teresa Carson, My Crooked House (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ)
• Linda Hogan, Dark. Sweet. New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, MN)
• Teresa Leo, Bloom in Reverse (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA)
• Alison Luterman, Desire Zoo (Tia Chucha Press, San Fernando, CA)

Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement for Previous Winners of the Paterson Poetry Prize

• Sherman Alexie, What I’ve Stolen, What I’ve Earned (Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, NY)
• Stephen Dunn, Lines of Defense (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
• Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)
• Maxine Kumin, And Short the Season (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
• Alicia Suskin Ostriker, The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA)
• Luis J. Rodriguez, Poems Across the Pavement (Tia Chucha Press, San Fernando, CA)
• Gerald Stern, Divine Nothingness (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)

Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for Previous Finalists of the Paterson Poetry Prize

• Eavan Boland, A Woman Without a Country (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
• Jericho Brown, The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA)
• Grace Cavalieri, The Mandate of Heaven (Bordighera Press, New York, NY)
• Sean Thomas Dougherty, All You Ask for Is Longing: New and Selected Poems 1994-2014 (BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester, NY)
• January Gill O’Neil, Misery Islands (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ)
• Afaa Michael Weaver, City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA)

THE 2015 PATERSON FICTION PRIZE

THE 2015 PATERSON FICTION PRIZE

Marilynne Robinson, Lila (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)

Marilynne Robinson's Lila is a haunting and mesmerizing novel of grit and grace and of the way our past impacts our present. Robinson is a literary archaeologist who delves the deepest levels of her protagonist's psychological landscape to create a profoundly moving work of fiction.
— Laura Boss, Judge

FINALISTS

• Michael Cunningham, The Snow Queen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY)
• Jim Ray Daniels, Eight Mile High (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI)
• Murray Farish, Inappropriate Behavior (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN)
• Lisa Lenzo, Strange Love (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)
• Helen Oyeyemi, Boy, Snow, Bird (Riverhead Books, New York, NY)
• Lee Upton, The Tao of Humiliation (BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester, NY)
• Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests (Riverhead Books, New York, NY)