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, Pennsylvania, United States. The conference focuses on various aspect of formal poetry, narrative poetry, New Formalism and Expansive Poetry. 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. It has become the largest poetry-only conference in the United States.
[edit] Keynote speakers
- 2007 — Kay Ryan
- 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
