West Chester University Poetry Conference
Encyclopedia
West Chester University Poetry Conference is an international poetry
conference
that has been held annually since 1995 at West Chester University, Pennsylvania
, United States. It hosts various panel discussions and poetry craft workshops
, which focus primarily on formal poetry, narrative poetry
, New Formalism
and Expansive Poetry
. It is largest poetry-only conference in America and possibly the world as well as the only conference which focuses on traditional craft.
with 85 poets and scholars in attendance. The original core faculty members included Annie Finch
, R. S. Gwynn
, Mark Jarman
, Robert McDowell, and Timothy Steele
. While some of these faculty still return regularly to teach, the faculty has expanded in recent years to include Kim Addonizio
, Rhina Espaillat
, B. H. Fairchild
, Rachel Hadas
, Molly Peacock
, Mary Jo Salter
, A. E. Stallings
, and many other widely published New Formalists.
Starting in 1999, the conference's program began including an art song
concert.
In 2003, Gioia stepped down as co-director of the conference in order to become chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
.
The 2010 conference was the 16th and last year with Peich as director before he retired and passed the position to Kim Bridgford. By this time, the conference attendance had increased to 300 poets and poetry scholars. That year's concert of art song featured Natalie Merchant
, who sung the poetry of various poets of the past. On June 12, the last day of the conference, British comic poet Wendy Cope
found out over the phone that she was made an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II while attending.
, the most notable one being the nationally-competitive Donald Justice Poetry Prize
. The other two are given to recognize local regional undergraduate work in the Delaware Valley
of Pennsylvania
.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
conference
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
that has been held annually since 1995 at West Chester University, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States. It hosts various panel discussions and poetry craft workshops
Class (education)
A class in education has a variety of related meanings.It can be the group of students which attends a specific course or lesson at a university, school or other educational institution, see Form ....
, which focus primarily on formal poetry, narrative poetry
Narrative poetry
Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...
, New Formalism
New Formalism
New Formalism is a late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse.-Origins and intentions:...
and Expansive Poetry
Expansive Poetry
Expansive Poetry is a movement in United States poetry that began in the 1980s. It is an umbrella term coined by Wade Newman for the movements of New Formalism and New Narrative, and the term is controversial even among many of the writers it purports to describe...
. It is largest poetry-only conference in America and possibly the world as well as the only conference which focuses on traditional craft.
History
The conference was founded in 1995 by West Chester professor Michael Peich and poet Dana GioiaDana Gioia
-Poetry:It was as a poet that Gioia first began to attract widespread attention in the early 1980s, with frequent appearances in The Hudson Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker. In the same period, he published a number of essays and book reviews...
with 85 poets and scholars in attendance. The original core faculty members included Annie Finch
Annie Finch
Annie Finch is an American poet. She is author of numerous books of poetry as well as poetry translation, poetry anthologies and criticism, opera libretti, and poetic collaborations with visual art, music, theater, and dance. Her writings on poetry address topics including meter and prosody,...
, R. S. Gwynn
R. S. Gwynn
R. S. Gwynn is an American poet, and anthologist associated with New Formalism.-Life:He graduated from Davidson College in 1969, where he won the Vereen Bell Award for creative writing twice, played varsity football on a dubious knee, and was a member of the school's championship team on the...
, Mark Jarman
Mark Jarman
Mark F. Jarman is an American poet and critic often identified with the New Narrative branch of the New Formalism; he was co-editor with Robert McDowell of The Reaper throughout the 1980s...
, Robert McDowell, and Timothy Steele
Timothy Steele
Timothy Steele is an American poet and academic. Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1948, he is a professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles. Some of Steele's early verse appeared in X. J. Kennedy's Counter/Measures in the early seventies. He went on to become a figure in the...
. While some of these faculty still return regularly to teach, the faculty has expanded in recent years to include Kim Addonizio
Kim Addonizio
Kim Addonizio is an award-winning American poet and novelist.-Life:Addonizio is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and sports writer Bob Addie....
, Rhina Espaillat
Rhina Espaillat
Rhina Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and has lived in the United States since 1939. She taught English in the New York City public schools for many years, and retired to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where for more than a decade she has led a group of New Formalist poets known...
, B. H. Fairchild
B. H. Fairchild
B.H. Fairchild is an award-winning American poet and former college professor. His most recent book is Usher , and his poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, Poetry, TriQuarterly, The Hudson Review, Salmagundi, The...
, Rachel Hadas
Rachel Hadas
Rachel Hadas is an American poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. Her most recent essay collection is Classics: Essays , and her most recent poetry collection is The Ache of Appetite . Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ingram Merrill Foundation Grants, the O.B...
, Molly Peacock
Molly Peacock
Molly Peacock is an American-Canadian poet, essayist and creative nonfiction writer. She is an alumna of Binghamton University.-Career:...
, Mary Jo Salter
Mary Jo Salter
Mary Jo Salter is an American poet, a coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry and a professor in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.-Life:...
, A. E. Stallings
A. E. Stallings
Alicia Elsbeth Stallings is an American poet and translator. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow-Background:Stallings was raised in Decatur, Georgia and studied classics at the University of Georgia and University of Oxford. She is an editor with the Atlanta Review. In 1999, Stallings moved...
, and many other widely published New Formalists.
Starting in 1999, the conference's program began including an art song
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
concert.
In 2003, Gioia stepped down as co-director of the conference in order to become chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
The 2010 conference was the 16th and last year with Peich as director before he retired and passed the position to Kim Bridgford. By this time, the conference attendance had increased to 300 poets and poetry scholars. That year's concert of art song featured Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchant is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.-Early life:...
, who sung the poetry of various poets of the past. On June 12, the last day of the conference, British comic poet Wendy Cope
Wendy Cope
Wendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:...
found out over the phone that she was made an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II while attending.
Awards given
Every year, the WCU Poetry Conference gives out three Iris N. Spencer Poetry AwardsIris N. Spencer Poetry Awards
The Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards are three awards administered by the West Chester University Poetry Center and are given annually during the West Chester University Poetry Conference "to recognize the important role of arts and letters in American life." The Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards were...
, the most notable one being the nationally-competitive Donald Justice Poetry Prize
Donald Justice Poetry Prize
The Donald Justice Poetry Prize is a nationally-known prize sponsored by the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards by the West Chester University Poetry Center. Given annually since 2006 to one American poet for an unpublished book-length manuscript of formal poetry, the award includes $1000 and an...
. The other two are given to recognize local regional undergraduate work in the Delaware Valley
Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...
of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Keynote speakers
- 19951995 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* February 16 — Announcement that 300 poems by S.T...
— Richard WilburRichard WilburRichard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989.... - 19961996 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* National Poetry Month was established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 as way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.* The movie Dead Man, written and...
— Donald JusticeDonald JusticeDonald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his... - 19971997 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*January 20 — Miller Williams of Arkansas reads his poem, "Of History and Hope," at President Clinton's inauguration....
— Anthony HechtAnthony HechtAnthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York... - 19981998 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Samizdat poetry magazine founded in Chicago .* Skanky Possum poetry magazine founded in Austin, Texas....
— Wendy CopeWendy CopeWendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:... - 19991999 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* July 1 — Scotland's Parliament opened with the singing of Robert Burns' "A Man's a Man For A'That", instead of "God Save The Queen"...
— X. J. KennedyX. J. KennedyX. J. Kennedy is a poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and writer of children's literature and student textbooks on English literature and poetry.-Beginnings and academic career:... - 20002000 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Griffin Poetry Prize is established, with one award given each year for the best work by a Canadian poet and one award given for best work in the English language internationally.* February —...
— Louis SimpsonLouis SimpsonLouis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:... - 20012001 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, W. H...
— Marilyn NelsonMarilyn NelsonMarilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator and children's book author. She is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks.-Early life:... - 20022002 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* After Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Britain, publishes a poem praising a suicide bomber who had killed himself and two Israelis after blowing himself up in a supermarket; the...
— Nina CassianNina CassianNina Cassian is a Romanian poet, composer, journalist and film critic.. , The Independent She is noted for her translating abilities, and has rendered into Romanian the works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan... - 20032003 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was opened at Queens University, Belfast, this year. It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a unique record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, as well as a full catalogue of...
— William Jay SmithWilliam Jay SmithWilliam Jay Smith is an American poet. He was appointed the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970.- Life :... - 20042004 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* April 1 — Foetry.com Web site is launched for the announced purpose of "Exposing fraudulent contests. Tracking the sycophants...
— Dana GioiaDana Gioia-Poetry:It was as a poet that Gioia first began to attract widespread attention in the early 1980s, with frequent appearances in The Hudson Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker. In the same period, he published a number of essays and book reviews...
- 20052005 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* October 7 — Celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl were staged in San Francisco, New York City, and in Leeds in the UK...
— Anne StevensonAnne StevensonAnne Stevenson is an American-British poet and writer.-Life:Stevenson's parents Louise Destler Stevenson and C.L. Stevenson met at a Cincinnati High School. They were living in Cambridge, England, where Charles was studying philosophy under I. A. Richards and Wittgenstein, when their first... - 20062006 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* French public notary Patrick Huet unveils Pieces of Hope to the Echo of the World in Lyon...
— James FentonJames FentonJames Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:... - 20072007 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* March 5: a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. This locale is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a winding...
— Kay RyanKay RyanKay Ryan is an American poet and educator. She has published seven volumes of poetry and an anthology of selected and new poems. Ryan was the sixteenth United States Poet Laureate, from 2008 to 2010... - 20082008 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* June — the release in the United Kingdom of a new film, The Edge of Love, Dylan Thomas' relationship with two women, starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys *...
— Richard WilburRichard WilburRichard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989.... - 20092009 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 5 – The Turkish government announces it will posthumously restore the citizenship it had stripped from influential poet Nazim Hikmet, a Marxist who died in 1963 as an exile in the Soviet...
— Donald HallDonald HallDonald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:... - 20102010 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* January 19 - For the first time since 1949, an anonymous black-clad man, known as the Poe Toaster, failed to show up at the tomb of Edgar Allan Poe at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, early...
— Rhina EspaillatRhina EspaillatRhina Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and has lived in the United States since 1939. She taught English in the New York City public schools for many years, and retired to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where for more than a decade she has led a group of New Formalist poets known... - 20112011 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:June 12 – A poet and student, Ayat al-Ghermezi of Bahrain, is sentenced to a year in prison as part of that kingdom's crackdown on Shiite protesters calling for greater rights...
— Robert PinskyRobert PinskyRobert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...
See also
- Mezzo CamminMezzo CamminMezzo Cammin is a semiannual online literary journal devoted to formalist poetry by contemporary women as well as to bring attention back to work that was more famous in previous eras. The journal's title comes from Judith Moffett's poem "Mezzo Cammin", which in turn takes its title from the...
, a journal of formalist poetry by women, associated with the WCU Poetry Conference - PoetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
- American poetry
- List of years in poetry