Gerald Stern, the first poet laureate of New Jersey, is the author of fourteen books of poetry and two books of prose. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and the National Book Award in 1998 for This Time, New and Selected Poems. His new book of poetry, Everything Is Burning, is forthcoming from Norton. He lives in Lambertville, New Jersey, a small city on the Delaware River.