Poetry as Progeny: Reflections on Letter from a Young Poet, by Hyam Plutzik

Dr. Asher Milbauer, Director of Graduate Studies in Literature, and Founder/Director of the Exile Studies Program at Florida International University.

Edward Moran (Panel Host) wrote the biographical and contextual information for Letter from a Young Poet. He will be a US visiting scholar on a project in England, in summer 2016, presenting on Hyam Plutzik’s legacy as a soldier poet who was stationed there in Norwich, UK, during World War II. Moran was also literary advisor for Oscar-nominated filmmaker Christine Choy’s documentary, Hyam Plutzik: American Poet (2006).

Gerald Stern, one of the greatest living American poets, and author of twenty collections of poetry and four books of essays. After reading, Letter to a Young Poet, Stern called it another "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," but a portrait which in its accuracy--again, honesty--is as original, unique, and every bit as wise as Joyce's. It reminds me of Walt Whitman's lines: "It is time to explain myself; let us stand up."