Congratulations to our current Poet in Residence, Marie Howe, on winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for New & Selected Poems!
Poetry & Language
The Harold Clurman Center for Poetry, Poetic Drama and the Spoken Word
The purpose of The Harold Clurman Center for Poetry, Poetic Drama and the Spoken Word is to explore the relationship between the actor and dramatic language, to celebrate dramatic and poetic language as a necessary but perhaps under-appreciated aspect of the actor’s art and craft, and to open channels of communication between poets, playwrights, actors, directors, voice specialists and critics in order to better understand issues of written and spoken language and the relationship between them.
The Board of Advisors for this Center is Literary Critic Harold Bloom, Poet John Ashbery, Poet Grace Schulman, Voice Experts Cicely Berry, Andrew Wade and Deborah Hecht.
In the true spirit of Harold Clurman, for which it was named, the poetry reading series at the Stella Adler Conservatory is marvelous for its inter-cultural daring. The audiences are exciting for their mix of young actors, writers, and dedicated readers. To appear there is to be fully aware of stage presence in reciting poetry and of the poetry in stage presence. At one reading, I picked up a wax rose from a stage set and presented it to one of the poets. It was wax, not real, but for me symbolic of the unity of theater and poetry. The two arts are inextricably joined.
Grace Schulman, Poet
Marie Howe, 2024-25 Poet in Residence
Poet Laureate
Award-Winning Writer Sonia Sanchez is Poet Laureate in perpetuity.
Poet in Residence
Award-Winning Poet Marie Howe is the 2024-2025 Poet-in-Residence.
Marie Howe is the author of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner, New and Selected Poems, (W.W. Norton 2024.) which includes poems from her four previous books. From 2012-2014, she served as the Poet Laureate of New York State. She is the poet in residence at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Previous Poet-in-Residence Artists include:
Evie Shockley, 2023-2024
Sonia Sanchez, 2022-2023
Mark Doty, 2021-2022
Rachel Eliza Griffiths, 2020-2021
Grace Schulman, 2019-2020
Gregory Pardlo, 2018-2019
Idra Novey, 2017-2018
Yusef Komunyakaa, 2016-2017
Sonia Sanchez, 2015-2016
The Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series
The Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series, created in 1997, brings great poets to the Studio to read their work and, if interested, discuss their artistic process. Poetry readings are free and open to the public.
2024-2025 Poetry Series:
Sept. 25, 2024 – Marie Howe
Nov. 13, 2024 – Grace Schulman
Jan. 29, 2025 – Idra Novey
Feb. 12, 2024 – Evie Shockley and Xavier Clark
Poet Idra Novey in conversation with a Stella Adler Studio of Acting student during the Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series.
Participating Artists Include:
| John Ashbery Susan Baron Erin Belieu Reginald Dwayne Betts Harold Bloom Cheryl Boyce-Taylor Mahogany L. Browne Alexander Chee Marc Cohen Henri Cole Alfred Corn Darian Dauchan Deborah Diggs Mark Doty Carol Muske Dukes Marcella Durand Cornelius Eady Jonathan Galassi Forrest Gander Aracelis Girmay Manuel Gonzalez Colin Greer Marilyn Hacker |
Rachel Hadas Terrance Hayes Gerrit Henry Edward Hirsh Marie Howe Saeed Jones Ty Jones Galway Kinnell Kenneth Koch Yusef Komunyakka Li-Young Lee David Lehman Philip Levine Anne Marie Macari Carolyn Martin Cate Marvin Jeffrey McDaniel Stanley Moss Peter Nickowitz Idra Novey Sharon Olds Madeleine Olnek Gregory Pardlo |
Cathy Park-Hong Molly Peacock Robert Pinsky Liam Rector Alice Reys F.D. Reeve Eugene Richie Grace Schulman Martha Serpas Ravi Shankar Brenda Shaughnessy Reginald Shephard James Sherry Evie Shockley Charles Simic Jonathan Skinner Patricia Smith Gerald Stern Mark Strand James Tate Susan Wheeler C.K. Williams Jerry Williams |
