{{Short description|American poet (1949–2025)}} '''Harold Sirowitz''' (March 6, 1949 – October 17, 2025) was an American poet who was named the Poet Laureate of Queens, New York.
==Life and career== Sirowitz was born on March 6, 1949, in Manhattan.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Alex |date=November 12, 2025 |title=Hal Sirowitz, Poet Who Mined His Mother's Worry With Wit, Dies at 76 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/nyregion/hal-sirowitz-dead.html |access-date=November 12, 2025 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He earned a degree from Hofstra in education.<ref name=Duggan2001>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-hal-sirowitz-newsday-nov-18-2021/170432738/ |title=A Live (and Lively) Poet's Society |first=Dennis |last=Duggan |work=Newsday |location=New York |date=November 18, 2001 |page=G2 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> He first began to attract attention at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe where he was a frequent competitor in their Friday Night Poetry Slam. He eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, and competed in the 1993 National Poetry Slam (held that year in San Francisco) along with his Nuyorican teammates Maggie Estep, Tracie Morris, and Regie Cabico.<ref name=Aptowicz2008>{{cite book |last1=Aptowicz |first1=Cristin O'Keefe |year=2008 |title=Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam |location=New York City |publisher=Soft Skull Press |chapter=Chapter 14: First and Always; Graduates from the NYC Poetry Slam's First Wave |url=https://archive.org/details/wordsinyourfaceg0000apto_l8l6 |url-access=registration| isbn=978-1-933368-82-5 }}</ref>{{rp|122}}
He would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV's ''Spoken Word: Unplugged''<ref name="mtv">{{cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/mtv-unplugged/show/3400/episode_guide.html&printable=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626223929/http://www.tv.com/mtv-unplugged/show/3400/episode_guide.html%26printable%3D1 |archive-date=2008-06-26|title=MTV's ''Unplugged'' series Episode Guide {{!}} 52. Spoken Word II |date=June 21, 1994 |website=www.tv.com }} </ref> and PBS's ''The United States of Poetry''.<ref name=Halperin1998>{{cite news |title=The Poet Of All Mothers / There's no rhyme but plenty of reason behind Hal Sirowitz' manic musings about mom |first=Karin |last=Halperin |work=Newsday |date=June 28, 1998 |id={{ProQuest|279114974}} }}</ref> He wrote eleven books of poetry, including the volumes ''Mother Said'', ''My Therapist Said'' and ''Father Said''. He was the best-selling translated poet in Norway, where ''Mother Said'' has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons.<ref name=Shapiro2001>{{cite news |title=The King of Queens? No, But Poet Laureate Will Do: It's Official; The Borough's New Voice Is Droll, Deadpan and Slightly Obsessed with Mom |last=Shapiro |first=Gary |work=The Forward |date=March 30, 2001 |id={{ProQuest|367725346}} }}</ref>
Sirowitz was a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry<ref name=Aptowicz2008/>{{rp|123}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Literature Fellowships |url=https://www.arts.gov/grants/recent-grants/literature-fellowships |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}</ref> and was the Poet Laureate of Queens.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/17/nyregion/ah-poetic-injustice-seeking-a-laureate-queens-goes-blank.html |title=Ah, Poetic Injustice! Seeking a Laureate, Queens Goes Blank |first=Robert F. |last=Worth |work=The New York Times |date=March 17, 2004 |access-date=April 15, 2025 }}</ref> He worked as a special education teacher in the New York public school system for 23 years. He was married to the writer Mary Minter Krotzer.<ref>{{cite news |title=Queens has no poet and doesn't know it |first=Dennis |last=Duggan |work=Newsday |location=Long Island |date=April 4, 2004 |id={{ProQuest|279769181}} }}</ref>
On October 17, 2025, Sirowitz died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 76.<ref name=Obit>{{cite web |url=https://obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com/harold-sirowitz |title=Harold "Hal" Sirowitz |website= Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Funeral Directors |date=19 October 2025 |accessdate=20 October 2025 |archive-date=21 October 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251021123839/https://obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com/harold-sirowitz}}</ref>
==Bibliography== *''Girlie Pictures'', Long Island City, NY: Low-Tech Press, 1982. *''Bedroom Wall'', New Brunswick, NJ: Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books, 1992. *''Fishnet Stockings'', New York: Appearances, no. 20, 1993. *''No More Birthdays'', Bristolville, OH: The Bacchae Press, 1993. *''Happy Baby'', 1997. Bristolville, OH: The Bacchae Press, 1995. *''Two Second Kiss'', Harvey, LA: Mulberry Press, 1995. *''Mother Said'', New York: Crown, 1996.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mother's Don'ts and Don'ts: But She Never Told Poet Son, 'Don't Quote Me' Mother Had Many Don'ts. But Not, 'Don't Quote Me.' |first=Bruce |last=Weber |work=New York Times |date=May 3, 1996 |page=B1 |id={{ProQuest|109612773}} }}</ref> *''My Therapist Said'', New York: Crown, 1998.<ref name=Brainard1998>{{cite journal |title=My Therapist Said |last=Brainard |first=Dulcy |journal=Publishers Weekly |volume=245 |issue=4 |date=January 26, 1998 |page=87 |id={{ProQuest|197053274}} }}</ref> *''Before, During, & After'', Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2003. *''Father Said'', Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2004.<ref name=Scharf2004>{{cite journal |title= Father Said: Poems |last=Scharf |first=Michael |journal=Publishers Weekly |volume=251 |issue=25 |date=Jun 21, 2004 |page=58 |id={{ProQuest|197044342}} }}</ref> *''Stray Cat Blues'', Omaha: The Backwaters Press, 2012.
==References== <references/>
==External links== *[http://www.halsirowitz.com/ Official website] *{{IMDb name|1719816}} *[https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/fales/mss_196/ Hal Sirowitz Papers], held by the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University *{{discogs artist|Hal Sirowitz}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirowitz, Hal}} Category:1949 births Category:2025 deaths Category:American male poets Category:Jewish American poets Category:Performance art in New York City Category:Place of birth missing Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American Jews Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:Special educators Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Pennsylvania
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