Robert Hershon

Robert Hershon was a poet, publisher, and advocate for the printed word. He was born in 1936, in Brooklyn. He heard his BA in journalism at New York University, while working as an editorial assistant at the New York Herald Tribune. Shortly after graduating, he visited a friend in San Francisco and decided to move there; he lived there for 5 years, returning to New York City in the early 1960s.

Hershon was the author of over a dozen poetry collections, including End of the Business Day (2019), Calls from the Outside World (2006), The German Lunatic (2000), and Into a Punchline: Poems 1986-1996. His work appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry Northwest, the World, Michigan Quarterly Review, Ploughshares and The Nation, among many others. He was awarded two NEA fellowships and three fellowships from New York State. He served as executive director of the Print Center, Inc. and was a co-founder and co-editor of Hanging Loose Press and Hanging Loose magazine.

Hershon lived in Brooklyn with his wife, writer Donna Brook, until his death in March 2021.