“In poem after poem, the reader detects sorrow and anger that the poet never allows to turn to despair — the poems are often ironic, but never self-protective — their immense vulnerability gives them great dignity.”
Jason Shinder
Jason Shinder was an American poet who authored three books and founded the YMCA National Writer's Voice. His last book, Stupid Hope (Graywolf Press, 2009), was released posthumously. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955, and published his first literary work in 1993, with the release of Every Room We Ever Slept In, which became a New York Public Library Notable Book. He went on to author Among Women and Uncertain Hours, and edit numerous anthologies, including The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later and The Poem I Turn To: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them. Shinder also served as director of the Sundance Institute Writing Program, as a teacher in the graduate writing program at Bennington College, as a graduate teacher at New School University, and was a Poet Laureate of Provincetown. Shinder also earned a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007. Shinder died from cancer in 2008.
