Poet Profile

David Gershator

David Gershator

Born: 1937 in Haifa (British Mandate Palestine, now Israel)
Resides: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (U.S.)
E-mail: david (at) gershator (dot) com

David Gershator taught at Rutgers, Adelphi, Brooklyn College, CUNY, and the University of the Virgin Islands. His translations, poetry, and reviews have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Caribbean Writer, Confrontation, Contemporary Haibun, Paterson Literary Review, etc. He co-edited Downtown Poets Co-op (1970’s-80’s) and currently writes a column for Home Planet News.

Awards and Other Honors: [incomplete] National Endowment of the Humanities Grant (1971); New York State Creative Arts Public Service Award (1978); VI Daily News poetry prize (1994); Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award honorable mention (1991); Gerald Brady Memorial Awards: first prize (1994) and honorable mention (1998).

Books Published: Translated and edited: Federico García Lorca: Selected Letters (New Directions, 1983).    Poetry: For Sex and Free Roadmaps (X-press Press, 1976); Kanji (X-press Press, 1977); Elijah’s Child (Cross-Cultural Communications, 1992); Play Mas (Downtown Poets, 1981).     Children’s books, co-author: Kallaloo (Cavendish, 2005); Summer Is Summer (2007); Moon Rooster (Cavendish, 2001); Bread Is for Eating (Holt, 1995); Palampam Day (Cavendish, 1997); Greetings, Sun (DK, Penguin, 1998); The Fisherman’s Horn (Little Bell Caribbean, 2010).    CD for children: “This Is the Day: Storysongs and Singalongs” (2008).

Selected Work
 
making sure 
nothing grows––
the rock gardener
 
the new year
the new you 
old hat
 
 
 
master rooster
your disciples
are hardboiled
 
at the temple gate
for a moment
in someone else’s shoes
 
 
 
water damaged paperback romance falling apart
 
blood spattered highway--the art of war
 
 

Credits: "making sure" - First Prize, Gerald Brady Memorial Awards (1994); Frogpond 17:3 (Autumn 1994); Haiku Society of America (2006); "master rooster" - Frogpond 34:2 (Spring/Summer 2011); "water damaged" - Frogpond 29:1 (Winter 2006); "the new year" – Frogpond 34:1 (Winter 2011); "at the temple gate" - from haibun “Wat Po” - Frogpond 28:2 (Spring/Summer 2005); "blood spattered" - Frogpond 29:2 (Spring/Summer 2006).

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