Poetry Reading

Join the Livingston Public Library as we celebrate National Poetry Month with a Poetry Reading on Sunday, April 28th from 2pm to 3pm. The event will be hosted by Susan Rothbard, Ken Ronkowitz and Mary Brancaccio, poets and former Livingston Public School teachers. There will be copies of their books available for purchase. The program is open to all members of the community, including current and former students of Livingston High School and Heritage Middle School. 

Susan Rothbard’s poetry has appeared in the The Cortland Review, Dogwood, Lips, The Literary Review, Nasty Women Poets Anthology, The National Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Poet Lore, and Southern Poetry Review among other journals. Her book, Birds of New Jersey, won the 2020 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize and was published by Broadkill River Press. Her work has also been featured in Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” and on Verse Daily. She taught English and Creative Writing in the Livingston Public School system for 25 years before retiring in 2019. 

After teaching English, film and video in Livingston for 25 years, Ken Ronkowitz taught at NJIT for another 15 years. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Tiferet, Lips, Northwest Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and English Journal and are anthologized in The Crafty Poet, A Constellation of Kisses, The Paradelle, and The Practicing Poet. Since 1998, he has edited PoetsOnline.org, a monthly online poetry magazine. His website is ronkowitz.com. 

Mary Brancaccio is a poet and teacher. She is the author of Fierce Geometry: Poems (Get Fresh Books, 2022), which was recommended by the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in Terrain.org, Naugatuck River Review, Minerva Rising, Edison Literary Review, Rattle, as well as on Major Jackson’s poetry podcast, The Slowdown. Brancaccio’s poetry is included in several Writing the Land anthologies and two international anthologies. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Brancaccio is also a poetry editor for Arts by the People’s online journal, The Platform Review. She also taught Creative Writing and English at Columbia High School in Maplewood and at Livingston High School. Her website is ghostgirlpoet.com.