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.

 


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