Yale University Alum Takes the Reins at C.W. Post Poetry Center

January 3, 2005 - Brookville, N.Y.—The Poetry Center of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University will celebrate its 30th year with a new director. C.W. Post Professor Isaac Cates will take over the reins from former Roslyn Heights resident Norbert Krapf, who has held the post since the center’s inception.

“I know Isaac shares my belief that the Poetry Center must provide a home for Long Island poets as well as poets from other corners of the country,” said Krapf, who retired from his post as the Center’s director but who now serves as Poet Laureate for the C.W. Post campus. “Dr. Cates’ experience as series manager of the Yale Series of Younger Poets at Yale University Press has brought him in touch with many fine younger poets.”

Cates holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale University; a M.A in the Writing Seminars from John Hopkins University, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas. Dr. Cates is also an assistant professor in the English Department at the C.W. Post Campus, and teaches courses including “The Graphic Novel.”  

His poetry has been published in Southwest Review, Schuylkill, Cumberland Poetry Review, Analecta, Zirkus, and The Yale Literary Magazine. Cates was also the recipient of the Mellon Fellowship, the Yale Academy of American Poets Prize, and the Albert Stanburrough Cook Prize in Poetry.

Cates’ plans for the Poetry Center include bringing in new readers and increasing attendance. Four Poetry Center events are planned for this spring: two readings by visiting poets, a reading in which faculty members will read poems they enjoy and the annual Poetry Awards Night, which will honor this year’s guest speaker, Norbert Krapf, for his work with the Center.

Created in 1974, the C.W. Post Poetry Center is the longest-running literary center at any university in the metropolitan New York area. Every year the Center sponsors poetry and fiction readings, class visits, and occasional workshops. The annual Poetry Awards Night, held in April, has featured such internationally acclaimed guest poets as Robert Bly, Denise Levertov and Richard Wilbur.

The Center also holds an annual poetry contest, initially started by the English Department in the 1960s, which is open to C.W. Post students, alumni, faculty, and staff.  The deadline for this year’s contest is February 17. All poems submitted should be previously unpublished and no longer than 50 lines. 

The C.W. Post Campus in Brookville, New York is part of Long Island University, the seventh largest private university in America. The campus, located on the 308-acre former estate of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, offers more than 200 academic programs.

For more information, call the C.W. Post Public Relations Office at (516) 299-2333 or email pr@cwpost.liu.edu.