Poetry. "In the crazy wisdom of no coincedence, Joel Lewis's collection linked poem, LEARNING FROM NEW JERSEY hit the bed table along with Osip Mandelstam's '50 Poems'. Brothers in predilections, both poets have drawn from an ironic, loving regard for their cities. In Lewis's 'research expedition into/ an ordinary night," his poems draw from his long time legend garnering, epic harrowing, factlet-threshing observations of New Jersey territories. In these poems 'the white noise of secret radios' crackles amid the mysterious geography of 'Great Notch' and 'Ong's Hat.' LEARNING FROM NEW JERSEY is as energetic, faceted and textured as the place it evokes."—Kimberly Lyons

Author City: HOBOKEN, NJ USA

Joel Lewis edited Bluestones and Salt Hay, an anthology of New Jersey poets, as well as Reality Prime, the selected poems of Walter Lowenfels, and On the Level Everyday, the selected talks of Ted Berrigan. His own poetry collections include SURRENDER WHEN LEAVING COACH, LEARNING FROM NEW JERSEY, and VERTICAL'S CURRENCY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS. A social worker by day, he has taught writing at The Poetry Project, The Writer's Voice, and Rutgers University. He and his wife, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, a cinema professor at Rutgers, live in Hoboken, NJ.