Appearing in Tent #1 | 3:00 pm
About the author
BJ Ward is the author of four books of poetry. His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The New York Times, and The Sun, among others, and have been featured on NPR, NJTV, and the website Poetry Daily. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. One of his poems, “For the Children of the World Trade Center Victims,” has been cast in bronze and acquired as part of the permanent collection at Grounds for Sculpture, an outdoor sculpture museum in Hamilton, NJ. He recently finished co-editing The Not Yet Fallen World: New & Selected Poems, the posthumous collection of Stephen Dunn’s poetry. Ward teaches full-time at Warren Community College in NJ.
MFOB featured book: Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems 1990-2013
Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems 1990-2013 is Ward’s most recent book of poetry. It received the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. Here, he has brought together in one volume the fruits of his labor spanning over twenty years. This rich collection of thoughtful and often ironic reflections reveals both the reverence and irreverence of human experience. Jackleg Opera contains material from Ward’s three previous books Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands, 17 Love Poems with No Despair, and Gravedigger’s Birthday, as well as thirty-five new poems that are reminiscent of the clear simple style of Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
