Before the Pen Runs Dry : A Literary Biography of Samuel Hazo

Through the lens of Samuel Hazo's engaging poems, Janine Molinaro tells the story of this fascinating man's life and career. Facilitated by extensive interviews with the poet and deeply moving excerpts from his personal journals, Molinaro provides insights into Hazo's family history, childhood, military service, and teaching career; his forty-three-year stewardship of the International Poetry Forum, which brought more than eight hundred international poets and performers to the city of Pittsburgh; his beloved wife Mary Anne and son Sam; and his views on politics, education, love, friendship, mortality, war, gender, poetry, and a host of other topics.

The book captures pivotal periods and significant events in Hazo's life that shaped the person and writer he became as well as the remarkable individuals who added meaning and vibrancy to his life's collage. Candid, wise, and conversational, Hazo's poems are central to this pioneering biographical form―guiding the narrative as opposed to merely adorning or supporting it. Hazo once noted, "There are too many analytical books about authors and not many that see life as a story―which is what life is." Before the Pen Runs Dry is such a story: an intimate portrait of the man who penned a lifetime of compelling and memorable poetry.

Janine Molinaro is professor and Chair, English Department, LaRoche University.