Gerald Stern

Gerald Stern received The National Book Award for Poetry in 1998 for This Time.

Poet Gerald Stern (center) receiving the 1998 National Book Award from Poetry Chairperson Grace Schulman (left) and NBF Executive Director, Neil Baldwin. Photo Credit: Robin Platzer, Twin Images

I would have to choose, of the many, the Poems of Hart Crane, which I first read when I was twenty - in Pittsburgh. Crane showed me the way to combine language, feeling, biography and an affirmative vision, all in the service of lyricism, of music. I still treasure him and learn from him.

Best regards,

Gerald Stern