The Poetry Foundation, based in Chicago, is perhaps the best online resource for poetry enthusiasts in the English speaking world. With a vast, encyclopedic scope, they seek to cover everything of significance in poetry on an international level. It was founded in 2003 with a grant from the philanthropist Ruth Lilly and is an evolution of the Modern Poetry Association, founded in 1941. They currently produce Poetry magazine, which began in 1912 and is the oldest publication devoted to verse in the English language.
Since my blogsite aims to cover modern poetry, it would seem a major omission to fail to mention the Poetry Foundation.
The founder of Poetry magazine, Harriet Monroe, stated the publication’s purpose in its first issue as:
to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach.
In its earliest editions, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams – all of whom were close friends of Harriet Monroe – graced the pages.
Currently, more than a third of the poets published in Poetry magazine are appearing in print for the first time. Now more than ever, the magazine is embracing, and hoping to define the future of the art form.
More to come….
1 response so far ↓
Laura Palotie // December 7, 2007 at 4:40 am
It’s great to see that there really are so many talented people keeping this art form going. I agree with you that we are writing about very similar topics, and although both are struggling in the mainstream, it’s so nice to know that finding sources who care about poetry or jazz is certainly not hard. Even though both are remnants of historical traditions, maybe both of them can find a new life online. Jazz musicians, for example, can now market themselves more easily than ever. When checking out Poetry Magazine’s web site, it was nice to see that they were publishing “web exclusives.” It’s a great start.