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About Peter E. Murphy, Founder/Director


About | Books | Press | Online Highlights of Peter's Work | Peter for Hire | Contact Peter


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.

Peter E. Murphy, poet, speaking at NJN

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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Books

Peter is the author two books of poems from Jane Street Press, Stubborn Child  and Thorough & Efficient.

Stubborn Child, poems by Peter E. MurphyStubborn Child

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

$14, Available from Jane Street Press and Amazon

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Thorough & Efficient, poems by Peter E. Murphy Thorough & Efficient

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.

$10, Available from Jane Street Press and Amazon

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Murphy Special: 2 books of poetry by Peter E. Murphy for $20Check out the Murphy Special

Buy both of Peter's books for $20, postage included.
Visit Jane Street Press and scroll down to the
"Murphy Special" button.

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What a deal!

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Press

Spring 2010: Peter's Principles from New Jersey Lifestyle Magazine
 

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Online Highlights of Peter Murphy's Work

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

Peter E. Murphy at London's Poetry LibrarySelected 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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Peter for Hire

Peter E. Murphy at Shakespeare's Globe in London

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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Contact Peter

Peter Murphy
peter@murphywriting.com
609-823-5076

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