2008 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest
Meet the Master of Ceremonies, Ira Joe Fisher

Ira Joe Fisher began his broadcast career at WGGO Radio in Salamanca, New York. He worked at WDOE in Dunkirk, New York and KWFR in San Angelo, Texas. In 1970 he moved to KHQ in Spokane, Washington. Doing his daily Ira Joe Radio Show and a variety of KHQ Television roles. In 1980, Ira accepted a position with WKRC Television in Cincinnati where he won two regional Emmy awards for television writing.

He has appeared on the CBS Television Network’s Saturday Early Show.

Ira is a prolific writer and poet. He was a contributing editor for Spokane Magazine through the late ‘70s and went on to author newspaper columns in The Stamford Advocate and The Greenwich Times.

Ira’s poetry has appeared in Poetry New York, The Alembic, The New York Quarterly, Entelechy International, Diner, Ridgefield Magazine and the anthology Confrontation. He is the author of Remembering Rew, a poetry chapbook and a full-length collection of verse, Some Holy Weight in the Village Air, published by Athanata Arts of New York. Ira has a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from New England College. He has taught poetry, communications and broadcast history at New England College and he lectures and teaches at the University of Connecticut, Stamford and at Founders Hall in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Ira regularly performed in the long-running musical The Fantasticks from 1995 to 2000. In the summer of 2003, he performed the role of “Henry VIII” in the musical The Prince and the Pauper at New York City’s Lambs Theatre. He appeared in the role of “Monsignor Buckley” in the two-act reader’s theatre drama The Garden of Dromore, presented at the New York University Hot Ink Festival. Ira has also appeared in the film “California Girls” with Robbie Benson and in the ABC daytime drama “Loving.”

Last updated: September 2, 2010