Hal Sirowitz

{{short description|American poet (born 1949)}}

Hal Sirowitz (born 1949) is an American poet.

Sirowitz has a degree from Hofstra in education.{{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}} 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.{{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=1-933368-82-9 }}{{rp|122}}

Sirowitz would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV's Spoken Word: Unplugged{{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 }} and PBS's The United States of Poetry.{{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}} }} He has written eleven books of poetry, including the volumes Mother Said, My Therapist Said and Father Said. He is the best-selling translated poet in Norway, where Mother Said has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons.{{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}} }}

Sirowitz is a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry{{rp|123}} and is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York.{{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 }} He worked as a special education teacher in the New York public school system for 23 years. He is married to writer Mary Minter Krotzer.{{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}} }}