Stanley Kunitz Memorial Service
on the Occasion of his 101st Birthday

July 29, 2006
An all-day reading of The Collected Poems
11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.

A Memorial Reading of the Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz, who died May 14, 2006, at his home in New York at the age of 100, will take place at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Massachussetts.

The Memorial Service will begin at 11:00am in the Stanley Kunitz Common Room at the Fine Arts Work Center, 24 Pearl Street, Provincetown, MA, on Saturday, July 29, 2006. Speaking at the service will be the poets John Skoyles and Cleopatra Mathis, who knew Stanley and his work for many years. In addition, one member of the Kunitz family is expected to speak.

Immediately following, every poem in Kunitz's The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz (W.W. Norton, 2000) will be read aloud by anyone in attendance at the service who wishes to read. The reading will begin with the first poem in the book and will continue until the entire book is read aloud. It is estimated that the reading will take more than 10 hours, giving approximately 200 people the opportunity to read one of Kunitz's poems.

"There were so many wonderful tributes to Stanley, both here and in New York while he was alive," said FAWC Executive Director Hunter O'Hanian, "We wanted to do something different. This gives everyone who was touched by Stanley's work the opportunity to read one of his poems at his Memorial Service. I think he would be pleased. Everyone is not expected to attend the entire reading. But this will give people a chance to attend at some point in the day. They can stop by, take a place in line and read a poem to the crowd assembled at the time. We hope that it will be a wonderful and fitting tribute to a man who has meant so much to so many people."

There will be a wall for posting remembrances along the back of the Stanley Kunitz Common Room and that will stay up for a few weeks after the event. W.W. Norton has donated copies of the Collected Poems that will be available for purchase with proceeds going to a Stanley Kunitz fund at the Work Center.

The doors to the Stanley Kunitz Common Room at the Fine Arts Work Center will open at 10:00 am on the morning of July 29, 2006.

For more information, please visit www.fawc.org