Judith Ferrara of Worcester, Massachusetts, has been chosen to receive the 2018 Stanley Kunitz Medal, awarded through a gift from two-time Poet Laureate of The United States and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Worcester native Stanley Kunitz. The medal, presented annually since 2015, is awarded to someone with a robust Worcester County (Massachusetts) connection who best exemplifies Stanley Kunitz’s (born in Worcester in 1905) life-long commitment to poetry and poets. The award recognizes the total commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: Teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations that nurture poetry.
Writer and visual artist Judith Ferrara lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her poetry and essays
have been published in three collections: Gestures of Trees (Mellen Poetry Press), A Brush with
Words (Autumn Light Press) and The little O, the earth: Travel Journals, Art & Poems (Palette
and Pen Studio), and in journals such as the black fly review, The Comstock Review, The
Portland Review Literary Journal, GSU Review, and The Worcester Review. In 2009, she began studying poet Stanley Kunitz, and Ferrara continues to research his life and poems. In 2016, she transcribed the correspondence, memoir, and diary of his mother, Yetta Kunitz Dine, and is currently developing a manuscript that includes these materials and supporting chapters about her life. Her art has appeared in group and solo exhibitions since 1988.
Nominator Robert Gill said of Ferrara, “She, alongside Carol Stockmal, developed the Kunitz/Stockmal House Docent Program to train individuals to conduct tours of the Stanley Kunitz Boyhood Home. She helped establish the Kunitz Boyhood Home Summer Writing Series.”
Ferrara received her award at the Worcester Historical Museum at 30 Elm Street, Worcester, Mass., on Thursday, July 26, 2018.
2018 Stanley Kunitz Medal Award Press Release
2018 Stanley Kunitz Medal Award Press Broadside
