2024 KUNITZ MEDAL PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RODGER MARTIN Chosen for 2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal
The Stanley Kunitz Medal committee is pleased to announce Rodger Martin as the 2024 medal recipient.
Whether in New England, Great Britain, or China, Rodger Martin’s mission is to bring poetry into the public arena. The Worcester County Poetry Association grew and prospered under his leadership as president, board, and committee member. He served as managing editor of the nationally recognized journal The Worcester Review for almost three decades. As a devoted volunteer, his work in poetry communities in New England exceeds the highest standards demonstrated by medal recipients.
Who is Rodger Martin? He was born in Pennsylvania, spent his childhood in England, served as combat engineer in Vietnam, and is a journalism professor at Keene State College in New Hampshire, where he resides. He has won an Appalachia Award for poetry and a New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Fellowship for fiction. Simply put: Martin has earned the right to be called a citizen and poet of the world.
A seven-time recipient of the Bruce Kellner/Monadnock Fellowship, Martin mentored poets through a series of cultural exchanges between Monadnock Pastoral Poets and Writers, including a collaboration among poets, colleagues from Keene State University and pastoral poets and calligraphers in China. He was co-director of New Hampshire’s Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Out Loud. He leads a poetry reading series at Del Rossi’s Trattoria in Dublin, New Hampshire.
Rodger Martin’s publications include four books of poetry, most recently All the Tea in Zhōngguó and The Battlefield Guide. He currently serves as co-editor for Hobblebush Books’ Granite State Poetry Series.
The Stanley Kunitz Medal originated with a bequest to the Worcester County Poetry Association from the estate of former Poet Laureate of the United States and Worcester native Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006). Martin will be the tenth recipient of the medal, which is bestowed annually on a poet with a strong Worcester County connection who best exemplifies Kunitz’s lifelong commitment to poetry by teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations which nurture poetry.
Also honored with a nomination this year was poet Oliver de la Paz.
Rodger Martin will receive his medal at a ceremony presented by the Worcester County Poetry Association at the Worcester Historical Museum on Thursday, July 25th from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. There is limited parking at the museum, with additional metered parking on the street and in the Pearl/Elm Street Garage. Visit worcestercountypoetry.org for details.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Ferrara, Chair – Judy@PaletteAndPen.com
