Edward Hirsch is a major American poet, advocate for the art of poetry, and president of the Guggenheim Foundation. His new memoir is My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy (2025).

In its review of My Childhood in Pieces, Kirkus Reviews said, “Hirsch channels the voices and personalities of his Chicagoland Jewish childhood to create a memoir composed of jokes and short vignettes, one setup-and-punchline after another… sometimes silly, sometimes off-color, often Yiddish-flavored, with a penchant for puns and dad jokes that never quits…. A unique recreation of a great life in a largely vanished world.” His 1999 book, How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry, was a national bestseller.

This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available. A signing will follow the conversation.

Cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York.