WELCOME


Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your interest in the Carriage House Series. Walt Whitman wrote, “To have great poets, there must be great audiences.” Whether we meet electronically or in person, we're happy to share our commitment to poetry (and to poets) with you, our "great audience."

The Carriage House Poetry Series was established in December of 1998 by Fanwood poet Adele Kenny. The initiative began as a project funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Department of State, through a grant administered by the Union County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs. Since then, the Series has been funded by the Borough of Fanwood with additional grants from such generous organizations as the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders (HEART Grants), the Union County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, and the Fanwood-Scotch Plains Service League.

Each year, with the exception of a safety-driven hiatus during the Covid pandemic, the series has featured some of the finest contemporary poets, including a wide range of nationally-known, regional, and local poets. Readers have included (among numerous others), Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn, Paul Muldoon, and Tina Kelley; Gerald Stern; Mark Doty; Alicia Ostriker; Patricia Smith; Taylor Mali; Gretna Wilkinson; Martin Jude Farawell; Maria Mazziotti Gillan; John Amen; Diane Lockward; Amanda Berry; Tony Gruenewald; R. G. Evans; and Laura Boss.

Readings are held in the Kuran Arts Center (a nineteenth century carriage house, formerly known as the Fanwood Carriage House and for which the series was named). The Arts Center is located on the grounds of Borough Hall, facing Watson Road off Martine Avenue (GPS use 75 N. Martine Avenue) in Fanwood, New Jersey.

All readings are free and open to the public; most include an open mic after the feature, and audience members are invited to share their poems.

Over the years, the Series has presented special programs with poets in costumes appropriate to various themes (usually around Halloween and to celebrate Carriage House anniversaries). Among the special presentations have been: "Festival of Famous Poets," "Poets' Apocalypse," "Monster Mash," "Wax Museum," "Gothic," "Renaissance Night," and "Their Legacy of Words."

Please take a moment to view our slideshows in the sidebar (just click on the arrows in the center).


Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Warm wishes to all for a 

blessed, happy, and healthy 2024!

 

We're happy to invite you to our first reading of the New Year on the last night of National Poetry Month, Tuesday, April 30th, 7:30 PM in the Kuran Arts Center (Carriage House). This will be an in-person reading featuring distinguished poet Edwin Romond.  

 

Be sure to mark your calendars and plan on joining us for what promises to be a wonderful evening of poetry and sharing. 

 

Bring a poem to read in the open!

 

Edwin Romond is the author of five books of poetry and has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Arts Councils. His poem, "Champion," won the 2013 New Jersey Poetry Prize and his book manuscript, Man at the Railing, won the 2022 Laura Boss Foundation Narrative Poetry Award (published by NYQ books and available via Amazon, see link below to order).


www.amazon.com/Man-at-Railing-Edwin-Romond/dp/1630451053

 

Ed was a public school teacher for 32 years in Wisconsin and New Jersey before retiring. He now works in the poetry program of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and lives with his wife and son in Wind Gap, PA.

 


Sunday, June 11, 2023


 

 

THE CARRIAGE HOUSE POETRY SERIES 

 

CELEBRATES  25 YEARS (1998-2023)


 25th Anniversary Celebration and Reading by Paul Muldoon
September 26, 2023, 7:30 PM
 
 
 
 (click the link above to watch the video)
 
 
On  Tuesday, September 26th, we celebrated our 25th anniversary with a special reading by Paul Muldoon (called by the Times Literary Supplement "The most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War.") 
 
Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh, Ireland in 1951. A former radio and television producer for the BBC in Belfast, he has taught at Princeton University for thirty-five years. He is the author of fourteen full-length collections of poetry, as well as numerous  smaller collections, works of criticism, opera libretti, books for children, song lyrics, and radio and television drama. His poetry has been translated into twenty languages. He served as Oxford Professor of Poetry (1999-2004) and as poetry editor of The New Yorker (2007-2017). 
 
Among his awards are the 1972 Eric Gregory Award, the 1980 Sir Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, the 1994 T.S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the 2004 Shakespeare Prize, the 2006 European Prize for Poetry, the 2015 Pigott Poetry Prize, the 2017 Queens Gold Medal for Poetry, and the 2020 Michael Marks Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
 
The evening was a fantastic after-Covid-come-back and 25th anniversary celebration for the Carriage House Poetry Series! Paul Muldoon was absolutely brilliant—stunning poems with witty and profound comments. About 65 people attended, and the old Carriage House rocked with warmth, sharing, and poetry! Sincerest thanks to all who were there, and extra-special thanks to Paul Muldoon. Thanks also to Pat Plante (for preparing and copying the booklet of Fr. Alex Pinto's poems), Catherine Doty, Karen Lee Ramos, Nancy Lubarsky, Bob Rosenbloom, and Bob Fiorellino for the refreshments. Special thanks also go to our amazing Mayor Colleen Mahr for her ongoing and enthusiastic support, as well as  to Councilwomen Pat Walsh and Kathy Mitchell who attended. Thanks, too, to our photographers: Tom Kranz, David Brighouse, and Bob Fiorellino.