Founded in 1922 as the Rochester, NY chapter of the Poetry Society of America

Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...

, Rochester Poets is the area's oldest, ongoing literary organization. The group ceased its affiliation with the Society in the 1980s in order to accept a wider variety of members; at that time, the organization adopted its current name.

Meetings are held monthly on the third Saturday at the Center at High Falls Gallery; from 2003–2005, the organization held monthly readings at Writers & Books; in January 2006, the venue was changed to St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY

Pittsford (town), New York

Pittsford is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States and is an affluent suburb of Rochester. The population was 29,405 at the 2010 census....

, where it currently holds a reading on the first Wednesday of every month.

Rochester Poets sends out regular email flyers of area literary events, publishes a monthly newsletter and The Pinnacle Hill Review*, an annual anthology of selected member work. The group maintains a website; a mailing list (informing subscribers of area literary events) which can be joined via the website; and a Blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

. Since 2004, Rochester Poets has been a sponsor of the annual Poets Against the War event for the Rochester area; since 2006, they have co-sponsored annual World Poetry Day

World Poetry Day

World Poetry Day is on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout THE WORLD and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and...

 and National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. It is celebrated every April in the United States and in Canada as well...

 events which have been held at St. John Fisher College. From April of 2007 until September, 2009, they co-sponsored a montly series of readings at the Anti-War Storefront, of the Peace, Action & Education Committee of Rochester MetroJustice.

Since 2007, Rochester Poets has also sponsored an Emerging Poets event in December of each year at St. John Fisher College. The event is open to poets of all ages; the primary criterion for eligibility is that participants are not yet "established" with a published volume of poems or had a significant number of poems appear in literary journals. The group also hosts the Free Speech Zone series held on the 1st, 2nd, 4th and (if there is one) 5th Tuesday at the Tango Cafe in Rochester.

Past and current members of note include Al Poulin, Jr. (1938–1996), Patricia Janus

Patricia Janus

Patricia "Pat" Janus was an American poet.Born Patricia O'Brien to Thomas and Rose O'Brien, she was raised in New York City where she worked for a brokerage firm. She met John "Jack" Janus , whom she married in the early 1950s...

 (1932–2006), Dale Davis

Dale Davis (poet)

Dale T. Davis is an American writer, educator, publisher, producer, scholar, dramaturge, and advocate for young people. She was one of the founding poets of New York State Poets In The Schools. In 1979, she co-founded The New York State Literary Center with poet, translator, and editor A. Poulin, Jr...

, Leah Zazulyer Watson, Cornelius Eady

Cornelius Eady

Cornelius Eady is an American poet focusing largely on matters of race and society, particularly the trials of the African-American race in the United States. His poetry often centers around jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questions of race and class...

, Dane Gordon, Jordan Smith

Jordan Smith

Jordan Smith is a former professional ice hockey player who was drafted by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim of the NHL.-Playing career:...

, James Lavilla-Havelin

James Lavilla-Havelin

James Samuel Havelin is American poet, editor and educator. Havelin founded the poetry series Poetry Central in Rochester the early 1970s. He also edited the Poetry Central Newsletter, which provided information on literary events in the upstate New York region...

, Etta Ruth Weigl, Israel Emiot (1909–1978), Gary Lehmann, John Roche, Vincent Golphin, Anne Coon, Carol Oliver, Gerald Clarke, Robert Koch, Wynne McClure, Ruth Kennedy, Francesca Gulì (ca 1921-2009), Paul Humphrey (1915–2001), Eleanor McQuilken (1908–2004), George Monagan (1925–2005), David Michael Nixon, W.E. Butts, Linda Allardt, Patricia Roth Schwartz

Patricia Roth Schwartz

-Background:Born Patricia Roth in West Virginia, she received her B.A. in English literature from Mount Holyoke College in 1968 and her M.A. in English literature from Trinity College. She also has an M.A...

, John Cieslinski, Beatrice O'Brien, Judith Kitchen, Stanley Rubin

Stanley Rubin

Stanley Creamer Rubin is an American screenwriter and film and television producer born in New York City, New York. He was the recipient of the Television Academy's first Emmy in 1949 for writing and producing an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's The Diamond Necklace.His initial scripts for the...

, and Frank Judge

Frank Judge

Frank Judge is an American poet, publisher, translator, journalist, film critic, teacher, and arts administrator.His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including New Directions, The Greenfield Review, The New Orleans Review, The Belingham Review, , , Bitterroot, Invisible City, Blank...

, the current president.

Other Rochester area poets of note are Adelaide Crapsey

Adelaide Crapsey

Adelaide Crapsey was an American poet. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she was raised in Rochester, New York, daughter of Episcopal priest Algernon Sidney Crapsey, who had been transferred from New York City to Rochester, and Adelaide T...

 (1878–1914), William Heyen

William Heyen

William Helmuth Heyen is an American poet, editor, and literary critic. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Suffolk County...

, Anthony Piccione

Anthony Piccione

Anthony Piccione is an American poet. Born in Sheffield, AL and raised on Long Island.He is author of four collections of poetry published by , the Rochester, NY publishing house founded by his colleague and friend, A. Poulin, Jr..His first book, Anchor Dragging, was chosen by Archibald MacLeish...

 (1939–2001), W.E. Butts, and John Ashbery

John Ashbery

John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...

. E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...

, though not a Rochesterian, has a connection to the city through Dr. James Sibley Watson

James Sibley Watson

Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr. was a Rochester, New York, medical doctor, philanthropist, publisher, editor, and early experimenter in motion pictures....

, a wealthy Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 classmate who became a patron of the arts and served as a benefactor to Cummings throughout much of the poet's life.

A large portion of the Rochester Poetry Society and Rochester Poets correspondence, minutes and other documents from 1922 to 1973 are archived in the Rare Books and Special Collection Department of the University of Rochester Rush Rhees Library.

• The group's anthology has had various titles over the years, among them Touchstone, Gleam, In Between Seasons, Images, and Daylight Burning Lanterns, and Disguised As Shapes You Love; some of the volumes can be viewed at the Rochester Public Library
  Rochester Public Library
  The Rochester Public Library is a library in Rochester, Minnesota. It is a member of Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, the SE Minnesota library region. It is the largest public library in an 11-county consortium within the southeastern section of Minnesota....
  
  , Central Branch Literature collection