Award winning playwright and poet John Surowiecki returns to The Poetry Institute!

Author of two collections of poetry, The Hat City after Men Stopped Wearing Hats and Watching Cartoons before Attending a Funeral, as well as five chapbooks.  His third collection, Barney and Gienka—poems about his parents, family and neighbors that take place during a week in June, 1965 —has just been released by CW Books. Surowiecki’s work has been published in numerous journals.  His awards include UCONN’s annual Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize (sponsored by Nimrod International Journal), and silver in the last Sunken Garden Poetry Festival National Competition. He’s also been awarded a Poetry Fellowship,Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Office of the Arts.

A recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s first Pegasus Award for verse drama, his play, My Nose and Me (A TragedyLite or TragiDelight in 33 Scenes), was performed at the 2008 AWP convention in New York, as part of the Creative Sustenance Program at the University of Connecticut, and at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater as part of the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry on Stage series.

He’s taking a break from the  poetry courses he’s teaching at Manchester Community College in Connecticut to share his poetry at pi-New Haven!

On the third Thursday of each month, The Poetry Institute Poetry Series celebrates an eclectic mix of poetic voices.  Free. Refreshments. Open mic.  Outstanding featured readers.  In a casual setting.   Free and Open to all members of the public.