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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. He is the author two books of poems,
Stubborn Child (2005), a finalist for the 2006 Paterson
Poetry Prize, and Thorough & Efficient (2008), both from
Jane
Street Press. His poetry and essays have appeared in The
American Book Review,
The Shakespeare Quarterly, World Order and hundreds of
other journals.
He is a consultant to many organizations including
Arts Horizons, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the
Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership and the Geraldine R.
Dodge Foundation and has been an educational advisor to Fooling
with Words with Bill Moyers and other PBS poetry programs.
In addition to receiving a 2009 Poetry Fellowship from the New
Jersey Council on the Arts, Peter has received awards and
fellowships from The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Yaddo, The
Folger Shakespeare Library and the White House Commission on
Presidential Scholars. Retired from Atlantic City
High School, he continues to teach poetry writing at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is
also the founder/director of Murphy Writing Seminars
which offers the
Winter Poetry & Prose
Getaway, Inservice Solutions Professional Development
and other programs for poets, writers and teachers.
Peter's Writing Getaways are known for helping writers develop their craft.
Read The Buzz about our Writing
Getaways!
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Peter is the author two books of poems from Jane Street Press,
Stubborn Child and Thorough & Efficient.

Jane Street Press, 2005
Finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize
"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
Reviews of Stubborn Child
From the
Home News Tribune
From
Ideas, The Newsletter of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Available from
Jane Street Press
and
Amazon
- or -
Jane Street Press, 2008
In Thorough & Efficient, Peter Murphy gives us a real depiction
of the malaise of so-called "inner city" education. Murphy, who taught for
29 years at Atlantic City High School, is relentlessly accurate and often
funny as he renders one indelible moment after another. In doing so he
replaces the Hollywood script of the "hero" teacher, sacrificing everything
so the orchestra can rise at the incipient miracle, with the realities of
violence, indifference, intractable corruption, and everyday effort, skill,
and decency. If there's any heroism here, it is that Murphy never
romanticizes his job or his students, which is probably why he lasted so
long.
Available from
Jane Street Press
and
Amazon
- or -
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Buy both of Peter's books for $20, postage included.
Visit
Jane Street Press
and scroll down to the
"Murphy Special" button.
- or -
What a deal!
|
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Spring 2010:
Peter's Principles from New Jersey Lifestyle
Magazine
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Selected essays on writing poetry:
Revise! Revise! Revise! from The New York Times
Three helpful lessons for teaching poetry from Bill Moyers' Fooling with Words
Of Millionaires & Mariners: Poetry across Time Curriculum, and Life
Breaking Through the Abstract
Selected poems:
“At the New Age Hotel” & “Can’t Dance” in The Cortland Review
"Baptism" in The Cortland Review
"The Stubborn Child" & other poems
"The Gap" in U.S. 1 Worksheets
"Long Night at the Parsippany Hotel" in Pif Magazine
"Llywelwyn's
Dog" on Verse Daily
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Book Peter Murphy.
Have poet—will travel.
Easy, but not cheap!
Bad jokes, very cheap.
Peter is a dynamic presenter who regularly offers craft workshops, talks
on topics such as "The Business of Writing,"
and readings of his poetry. If you would would like him to work with your
group, contact us for availability and pricing.
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Peter Murphy
peter@murphywriting.com
609-823-5076
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