Stubborn Child

by Peter E. Murphy

Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York City where he operated heavy equipment, managed a night club, and drove a cab. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including The Anglo-Welsh Review, The Atlanta Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, The New York Quarterly, The New York Times, Witness, and Yellow Silk. His essays and reviews have been published in The American Book Review, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Teachers Digest, The Shakespeare Quarterly, The Teachers & Writers Guide to Frederick Douglass, World Order and elsewhere. He is a consultant to the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's poetry program and has been an educational advisor to five PBS television series on poetry including "Fooling with Words" with Bill Moyers. Murphy has received awards and fellowships for writing and teaching from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Corporation of Yaddo, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. In addition, he was the first recipient of the Robert Hayden Poetry Fellowship at the Louhelen Bahá'í School in 1986. Peter Murphy is the founder/director of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, held annually in Cape May. More info can be found on Peter Murphy at www wintergetaway com. "Peter Murphy's superb Stubborn Child unflinchingly enacts and examines his own painful childhood, then moves to the often damaged and compromised lives of the high school students he teaches. Like the best delineators of unhappiness, he also brings humor to his task, the dark humor of a survivor. And indeed this is a survivor's book, both transforming and transformative - in the end, Murphy the man able to love and affirm, Murphy the poet able to raise the unruly and the tawdry to the level of art." ~Stephen Dunn

Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York where he managed a night club, operated heavy equipment and drove a taxi. He has been awarded six creative writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which might be a record, as well as multiple residencies at Yaddo, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Millay Colony and other artist retreats. He has published a dozen books and chapbooks of nonfiction and poetry including A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption, now out from Toplight Books.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people in the New Jersey area have heard of and known Peter E. Murphy and have looked hard for a collection of his work. Now, the looking has an end result. This is a fine overview of poems from various stages of the poet's life as a person and as an artist, exemplifying a wide array of roads to happiness. Of course, the happiness conveyed in the book has come with various prices, as only true happiness can. In all, Peter E. Murphy offers a poetic world of hope when misery and failure seems just as accessible.