Poet Anselm Berrigan recently announced that he will be stepping down as artistic director of the St. Mark's Poetry Project in New York City. "June 30 of this year will be my last day," Berrigan wrote in a letter to readers of the February/March 2007 issue of the Poetry Project Newsletter. "For what it's worth, I'm leaving by my own choice, on very good terms with the Project, and with no other job or position elsewhere in the works." The nonprofit organization will form a search committee to find a new director during the next few months.
Berrigan, the son of poets Alice Notley and the late Ted Berrigan, was named artistic director in the summer of 2003; he succeeded Ed Friedman, who held the position for sixteen years. The St. Mark's Poetry Project, founded in 1966 by Paul Blackburn, offers a reading series and writing workshops and publishes a literary magazine and quarterly newsletter. It also holds a significant audiotape archive of poetry readings and related events. For more information, visit the organization's Web site.
