Gerald Daniel Stern (February 22, 1925 – October 27, 2022) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. The author of twenty collections of poetry and four books of essays, he taught literature and creative writing at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The uni ...

Raritan Valley Community College Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is a public community college in North Branch, New Jersey. RVCC offers Associate degree programs leading to an Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), Associate of Fine Art (A.F.A), or a ...

and the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative ...

. From 2009 until his death, he was a distinguished poet-in-residence and faculty member of

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three sch ...

's graduate program for a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...

(MFA) in poetry. Stern was a graduate of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and attended the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

for post-graduate study. He received the National Book Award for Poetry in 1998 for ''This Time: New and Selected Poems'' and was named a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize in Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

in 1991 for ''Leaving Another Kingdom: Selected Poems''. In 2000, Governor

Christine Todd Whitman Christine Temple Whitman (née Todd; born September 26, 1946) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001 and as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration ...

appointed him the first Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

Early life

Stern was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1925. His parents, Harry and Ida Barach Stern, were Jewish and immigrated to the United States from Ukraine and Poland, respectively, in 1905. They owned several clothing stores and sold other items including cigars. Stern attended

Taylor Allderdice High School Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It opened in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and S ...

in his hometown, graduating in 1942. He was initially rejected from military service due to his poor eyesight, but served in the

Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

from 1946 to 1947 after the military re-examined him. He studied at the

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1947. Two years later, he obtained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

Career

After earning his master's degree, Stern relocated to Europe to undertake doctoral studies at the

. However, he did not finish his degree and spent his twenties traveling between New York City and Europe. It was during this time that he started to write and publish poetry. Stern went back to the US in 1956 and started teaching at

. He remained there for seven years and left after being unable to receive

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

. He subsequently taught at

for four years. After a period of

paid leave The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...

, he taught at

in New Jersey, before briefly working at Pittsburgh (his alma mater) in 1979. He then went to the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

at the behest of the

, and taught there for 14 years until his retirement in 1996. Stern came out of retirement to teach at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sarah Lawrence scholarship, particularly ...

for a while. Stern published his first poem, "The Pineys", in 1969 in ''The Journal of the Rutgers University Library''. Four years later, he released his first

poetry collection A poetry collection is often a compilation of several poems by one poet to be published in a single volume or chapbook. A collection can include any number of poems, ranging from a few (e.g. the four long poems in T. S. Eliot's ''Four Quarte ...

titled ''Rejoicings''. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of his second collection, ''Lucky Life'', which was that year's

Lamont Poetry Selection The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. He also authored a series of essays on writing poetry in ''

American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizabe ...

.'' He went on to receive several awards for his writing, including the 1996

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordina ...

, the 1998

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

for ''This Time: New and Selected Poems,'' and the 2012 Library of Congress Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Award for ''Early Collected Poems: 1965–1992.'' He was Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2000 to 2002, and received the

Wallace Stevens Award The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

from the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

in 2005. From 2006 on Stern was a chancellor of the

. In addition to the aforementioned academic institutions, Stern also taught at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. During the mid-1970s, he was a literature consultant for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania Council of the Arts as well as a coordinator for Pennsylvania's poetry in schools program. Stern was a faculty member and co-founder of

New England College New England College (NEC) is a private liberal arts college in Henniker, New Hampshire. As of Fall 2020 New England College's enrollment was 4,327 students (1,776 undergraduate and 2,551 graduate). The college is regionally accredited by the ...

Program in Poetry.

Personal life

Stern married Patricia Miller in 1952. They had two children together. They divorced in the 1980s. He was in a domestic partnership with poet Anne Marie Macari during the last 25 years of his life, and he lived in New York City and

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which ...

. Stern died on October 27, 2022, at the Calvary Hospice in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was 97 years old.

Publications

Honors and awards

* 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship * 1977 Lamont Poetry Selection * 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship * 1981 Melville Caine Award * 1982 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship * 1987 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship * 1991 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Finalist"Poetry"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved April 8, 2012. * 1992 Paterson Poetry Prize * 1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize * 1998 National Book Award for Poetry"National Book Awards – 1972"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
(With acceptance speech by Stern and essay by Ross Gay from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) * 2000–2002 Poet Laureate of New Jersey * 2005 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry Jewish Book Council > National Jewish Book Award Winners] * 2005 Wallace Stevens Award * 2012 Library of Congress Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Award

References

External links

Gerald Stern
at the

Gerald Stern papers
at the

Library System * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Gerald 1925 births 2022 deaths American male poets Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Jewish American poets National Book Award winners National Endowment for the Arts Fellows New England College faculty University of Iowa faculty Temple University faculty People from Lambertville, New Jersey Poets from New Jersey Poets Laureate of New Jersey The New Yorker people University of Pittsburgh alumni Military personnel from Pittsburgh Writers from Pittsburgh PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers