Newark, New Jersey, got the nod to host the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s signature poetry festival next fall, the Star–Ledger reported in late September. The festival has been tentatively set for October, and will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey Historical Society, parts of Military Park, and at two local churches. “From its opening minutes, this will be the most important urban poetry festival in the country,” said David Grant, president and CEO of the Morristown Foundation.

Despite news earlier this year that the festival would be suspended due to cost concerns, Grant informed the New York Times in August that the festival was back on track. At the time, Grant said the festival was looking to acquire a hosting partner by September. The decision to cancel the event, held every other year since 1986, elicited letters of support from prominent members of the poetry community, including Jane Hirshfield and C.K. Williams. When officials from Montclair, New Jersey, contacted the Dodge organization in April to express interest in hosting the festival, Grant was given hope that the show might go on. “That caused us to say, ‘You know what, maybe this can work,’” Grant told the Times. Shortly after, the organization announced it would accept proposals from other prospective partners, and by June, the list was boiled down to three New Jersey locations. Since drawing 3,000 attendees in its inaugural year, the Dodge Poetry Festival has become North America’s largest poetry event, attracting a crowd of 19,000 in 2008.