Since 2023, Pulitzer Prizewinning poet and former Poetry Editor of The New Yorker Paul Muldoon has led his extraordinary “How to Read a Poem” discussions at literary festivals and universities all over the world. At these very special gatherings, participants meet to discuss poems published only that week in literary journals and magazines, not just to glean their individual meanings but to reflect on where poetry as an art form has been – and where it’s going.

For nearly forty years, Paul Muldoon has been Howard G. B. Clark Professor at Princeton, teaching creative writing, Irish literature, songwriting and translation. He served as Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 to 2004 and Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2022 to 2025. His fifteen major collections of poetry, published in America by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, include MOY SAND AND GRAVEL (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and JOY IN SERVICE ON RUE TAGORE, a New York Times Notable Book of 2024. He is the editor of many anthologies of poetry, including, most recently, SCANTY PLOT OF GROUND: A BOOK OF SONNETS.

Poems for discussion will be distributed at the session. No preparation or knowledge of poetry is necessary. The only prerequisite? An open mind.

Presented by BOOKTHEWRITER, Class limited to 80 participants, running time two hours with a ten minute break.

Register at Humanitix, $45

We are happy to offer discounted tickets of $35 to members of the American Irish Historical Society. Please use the code AIHS