Up next for Brooklyn Reading Works: Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn edited by Michael Tyrell and Julia Kasdorf. OCTOBER 18th at 8 p.m. The Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. Directions here.

Brooklyn,
crouching forever in the shadow of Manhattan, is perhaps best known for
a certain bridge or for the world-renowned tackiness of Coney Island.
When it comes to literary history, Brooklyn can also seem dwarfed by
its sister borough-until you take a closer look. As unlikely as it may
sound, for more than two centuries Brooklyn has inspired poets and
poetry. Although there are plenty of poetry anthologies devoted to
specific regions of the United States, Broken Land is the first to focus exclusively on verse that celebrates Brooklyn. And what remarkable verse it is.

Edited
by poets Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell, this collection of
135 notable poems reveals the many cultural, ethnic, aesthetic, and
religious traditions that have accorded Brooklyn its enduring place in
the American psyche. Dazzling in its selections, Broken Land
offers poetry from the colonial period to the present, including
contributions from the American poets most closely associated with
Brooklyn-Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, and Marianne Moore-as well as
memorable poems from Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, George Oppen, and Charles Reznikoff. Also included are a
wide range of contemporary works from both established and emerging
poets: Derek Walcott, Galway Kinnell, C.K. Williams, Amy Clampitt,
Martin Espada, Lisa Jarnot, Marilyn Hacker, Tom Sleigh, D. Nurkse,
Donna Masini, Michael S. Harper, Noelle Kocot, Joshua Beckman, and many
others.

Several poets from this great collection of Brooklyn poems will be on hand at the Old Stone House: Phillis Levin, Andrea Baker, Patricia Spears Jones, and Tom Sleigh.

Details: October 18 8 p.m. at the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope.