West Chester University Poetry Conference
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Founded by West Chester professor Michael Peich and poet Dana Gioia, the West Chester University Poetry Conference is a poetry conference that has been held annually since 1995 at West Chester University. The conference focuses on various aspect of formal poetry, narrative poetry, New Formalism and Expansive Poetry. Many of the original core faculty members, such as Timothy Steele, Mark Jarman and R. S. Gwynn, return regularly to teach, but the faculty has expanded in recent years to include Rhina Espaillat, Rachel Hadas, Mary Jo Salter, A. E. Stallings, B. H. Fairchild and many other widely published New Formalists. It has become the largest poetry-only conference in the United States.
[edit] Keynote speakers
- 2006 — James Fenton
- 2005 — Anne Stevenson
- 2004 — Dana Gioia
- 2003 — William Jay Smith
- 2002 — Nina Cassian
- 2001 — Marilyn Nelson
- 2000 — Louis Simpson
- 1999 — X. J. Kennedy
- 1998 — Wendy Cope
- 1997 — Anthony Hecht
- 1996 — Donald Justice
- 1995 — Richard Wilbur
