Join Artistic Director Ann Filmer in welcoming Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein to the Berwyn Cultural Center Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 PM for a FREE event.

Mr. Stein will read from his work, and actors will perform staged poems by both Mr. Stein and poet/playwright Susan Hahn. The presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion with the poets, actors, and audience on “Poetry as Theater.” Please call (708) 795-6704 for more info.

In December 2003, Governor Blagojevich named Kevin Stein Illinois Poet Laureate, filling the position previously held by Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, and Howard Austin. This title is one of many honors and accolades Kevin Stein has earned during his career as poet, critic, editor, and teacher.

Author of seven poetry collections, two scholarly books, two poetry anthologies, numerous poems and essays published in journals as well as anthologies, Stein has received wide acclaim from reviewers.  His newest collection, History’s Bicep, is forthcoming in fall 2008 from University of Illinois Press.  In 2005 his collection American Ghost Roses (University of Illinois Press) was praised by David Wojahn for its “impeccable craft” and by Edward Hirsch for its “particularly American . . . way of fooling around to get at something deep and necessary.” In addition, American Ghost Roses garnered the Society of Midland Authors 2006 Poetry Award.  Two other collections, Chance Ransom (2000)and Bruised Paradise (1996), also appeared in the University of Illinois Press Poetry Series.  Earlier, his first poetry volume, A Circus of Want (University of Missouri Press, 1992), earned the prestigious Devins Award for Poetry.  Elsewhere, his poetry has been honored with the Frederick Bock Prize awarded by Poetry, the 1998 Indiana Review Poetry Prize, and four Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards – the most recent awarded in 2007 to his poem “In Human Hands.” In addition, Stein has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship and three such fellowships granted by the Illinois Arts Council, as well as grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  In 2004 he was awarded the Vernon Louis Parrington Medal for Distinguished Writing.  His poems and essays have appeared widely in journals such as American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Colorado Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, Southern Review, and TriQuarterly.

In addition to writing poetry, Stein has pursued a lively scholarly career as literary critic. Stein’s scholarly works enhance readers’ appreciation for his fellow poets’ art. One such work, Private Poets, Worldly Acts (Ohio University Press, 1996; rpt 1999), examines the intersection of public and private history in the work of nine American poets, including Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, Frank O’Hara, and Yusef Komunyakaa. This volume was named a 1997 Recommended Book by Amazon.Com, the citation applauding how the book’s “insightful visions” lift readers “beyond just reading a poem – to reading between its lines.” Also, Stein’s James Wright: The Poetry of a Grown Man (Ohio University Press, 1989) remains the benchmark study of this important American poet.

What’s more, Stein has extended his scholarly interests by editing two important anthologies of Illinois poetry.  In 2007 Stein edited Bread & Steel, the first-ever audio CD poetry anthology of 24 Illinois poets reading their works.  Sales from this audio CD will support Stein’s Poetry Now! initiative; this Poet Laureate project donates funds to Illinois libraries for the purchase of books by Illinois poets.  For detailed description of Bread & Steel and CD ordering information, click here.  With poet G. E. Murray, Stein also edited Illinois Voices: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry (University of Illinois Press, 2001).  This volume offers the first comprehensive anthology of Illinois poetry’s rich twentieth-century heritage. Following the publication of Illinois Voices, Stein and Murray traveled throughout the state to lead discussions and readings from the anthology at libraries in locales such as Chicago, Charleston, Peoria, Springfield, and Urbana.

Stein’s efforts as professor and creative writing program director at Bradley have earned the University’s highest honors, including Bradley Faculty Member of the Year and the Samuel Rothberg Award for Professional Excellence. In 2000, Stein was named Caterpillar Professor of English, an honor recognizing his accomplishments as poet, critic, editor and teacher. Married for nearly thirty years, Kevin Stein resides with his wife Deb and their two children in Dunlap, Illinois.