Gerald Stern

Born: 1925-02-22, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died: 2022-10-27, New York City
Status: Included

Poet and teacher, born and raised in Pittsburgh. Winner of the 1998 National Book Award for This Time: New and Selected Poems.

Ties to Pittsburgh

When	Kind	What
1925	Born	Born in Pittsburgh to parents who owned clothing stores.^[1]
to 1942	Raised	Graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1942.^[1]
to 1947	Studied	B.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1947.^[1]
1979	Taught	Taught briefly at the University of Pittsburgh before leaving for the Iowa Writers' Workshop.^[1]

Why this entry is here

Stern grew up here and studied at Pitt. Most of his career happened elsewhere: Temple, Iowa, New Jersey, where he was the first state poet laureate. He returned to teach at Pitt briefly in 1979.

Notes

The University of Pittsburgh's Special Collections holds his papers, including correspondence with Jack Gilbert.

Where the sources disagree

Wikipedia says Stern and Jack Gilbert were classmates at Pitt, but also gives Stern's graduation as 1947 and Gilbert's as 1954.^[1]^[2]

Sources

Gerald Stern. Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-11.
Jack Gilbert. Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-11.

pghpoets.com · A catalog of poets who lived or worked in Pittsburgh.
Entry: greg. Created 2026-11-11, revised 2026-11-12.