From Atlantis and beyond...

(a note from our President, Dr. Jack Devine)


The Ocean City Arts Center is proud to announce another in its series of readings of world-renowned poets. This will be a joint reading by Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky. Doty is the winner of the 2008 National Book Award for Poetry for his collection of poems entitled "Fire to Fire." Paul Lisicky is the author of several widely acclaimed memoirs. Both men are professors of literature. They live in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

Doty and Lisicky join the Arts Center's list of prestigious poets who have read there, including the late A.R. Ammons (National Book Award winner), and Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn, John Ashbery, and Paul Muldoon.

What is especially interesting about Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky is that they have a great feeling for Ocean City. Lisicky in particular spent several summers here while growing up. In fact, when Doty and Lisicky bought a summer home in Fire Island Pines on the south shore of Long Island, N.Y. in 2007, Lisicky noted in a New York Times interview that the house they purchased, a 1960s contemporary ranch house, " . . . reminded [him] of his family's summer home in Ocean City, N.J." When I contacted the two men several years ago about a possible reading, Lisicky wrote back with a score of fond memories of Ocean City in the summer--Hogate's restaurant, the boardwalk, etc.



Both writers will be reading a selection of work at the Ocean City Arts Center on September 25, 2009 at 7:00 PM. The cost is $5, and the event is for all ages. We are located at 1735 Simpson Avenue in Ocean City, NJ. For more information feel free to contact us at 609.399.7628 or via e-mail: JadeL@oceancityartscenter.org


We'd like to extend a thank you to the Ocean City Free Public Library for sponsoring this event.


Photo credit: Rachel Philipson