The WCU Poetry Center
The Poetry Center is off and running with some exciting plans for the year ahead. Stay tuned to the Poetry Center Facebook page and this website for all the latest information about readings, prizes, and other happenings, but also know that we are focusing our time and energy this year on a Strategic Planning effort that will guide the Poetry Center over the years ahead.
Our motivation for launching a strategic planning process was very simple: We want to keep the momentum created by the Poetry Center’s previous director, Dr. Cherise Pollard, and continue to work toward even more sustainable and more student-focused programming. We are pleased that Nancy Pearson has agreed to lead this planning effort, and she will be working to gather feedback and insights from the full range of Poetry Center constituents and fans. Know that your feedback is vital to our efforts to continue to improve the work of the Poetry Center and align it with our mission and our talents. As such, we ask that you look out for opportunities to contribute your ideas, feedback, and creative energy.
The Poetry Center offers a variety of programs and activities that help expand its mission of bringing poetry to an ever-widening audience.
The Poetry Center Awards and Activities
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The Spencer Poetry Awards, including:
- the Donald Justice Poetry Prize
- the Iris N. Spencer Undergraduate Poetry Award
- the Myong Cha Son Haiku Award
- the Wil Mills Chapbook Award
- the Rhina P. Espaillat Award
- the Sonnet Poetry Award
- the Villanelle Poetry Award
- Poet-in-residence
- Poetry reading series
- Mini-conferences on topics related to poetic craft
The West Chester University Poetry Center offers an active, interesting, and diverse slate of activities. We invite you to join us and discover the joys of poetry.
WCU Poetry Center 2024: Wil Mills winner, Guy D’Annolfo; judge and resident poet, Ernest Hilbert; Donald Justice judge and keynote speaker, Patricia Smith; and DJ winner, Sunni Wilkinson are all smiles at the Pop-Up Poetry Festival. Photo Credit: Melissa Reitnour
Shirley Lim Fellowship Opportunity
Purpose of the fund:
The Shirley Geok-lin Lim Award is an annual distribution of up to $1,000 for the chosen recipient to attend the WCU Poetry Conference or WCU Poetry Workshop. The distribution may be used for economy travel and accommodations.
The recipient must be a K-12 teacher from the United States who actively teaches the writing of poetry. Applicants must submit a letter from their principal verifying they teach writing and poetry in the classroom. They must submit 3-6 original poems in form and a copy of a lesson plan for teaching poetry. Submissions will be directed to the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities for review in coordination with the WCU Poetry Center Director. Please submit all documents to poetry@wcupa.edu with a subject line of “Shirley Lim Award.”
Background Info:
Born in Malacca, Malaysia, Shirley Geok-lin Lim was raised by her Chinese father and attended missionary schools. Although her first languages were Malay and the Hokkien dialect of Chinese, she was reading English poetry by the time she was six. At 10, her first poem was published in The Malacca Times; by age 11, she knew she wanted to be a poet. She earned her B.A. from the University of Malaya and her Ph.D, from Brandeis University.
Lim considers herself primarily a poet, although she has also written three books of short stories, numerous critical texts, three novels, and a memoir. Her debut collection, Crossing the Peninsula and Other Poems (Heinemann, 1980) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first for a woman and an Asian. Her ten poetry collections include three published in 2015, Ars Poetica for the Day, The Irreversible Sun, and Do You Live In? Embracing the Angel focused on the Democracy Movement that she observed first hand while a Visiting Distinguished Professor in Hong Kong in 2014. Her many awards include the UCSB Faculty Research Lecturer Award (the highest honor UCSB offers its faculty), Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer Awards, two American Book Awards, and the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lim was a professor of English and chair of the Women’s Studies department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She retired in 2012 after almost two decades of service to the university. She also taught at MIT and served as Chair Professor of English at University of Hong Kong.
Poetry Center Mission Statement
The West Chester University Poetry Center was created in 2000 to further the study and appreciation of poetry. The goals of the Poetry Center are to:
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provide the nation's finest instruction in the diverse traditional techniques of poetry.
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provide an international forum for the discussion of poetic form and prosody.
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train teachers in the art of teaching poetry and poetic form.
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foster the necessary dialogue between practicing poets and critics in a culture that too often separates them.
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recognize poetic achievement through the Iris N. Spencer Awards.
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illustrate the important connections between contemporary poetry and fine printing.
Poetry Center Advisory Board
The West Chester University Poetry Center Advisory Board supports the overall objectives of the West Chester University Poetry Center, including the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards, through promotional and fund raising activities.
Board members are identified and recommended by the members of the WCU Poetry Center Advisory Board and the Program Director of the Poetry Center in consultation with the West Chester University Advancement Office. All appointments to the Board are approved and made by the President of West Chester University. The Board is composed of members/advocates of the arts community, University alumni, and local and national business and civic leaders.
Current Poetry Center Board Members
- Kean Spencer, President
- Emily Culbertson
- WCU Foundation Director of Development
- Rhina Espaillat
- Kat Gilbert
- Dana Gioia
- Jeff Hardin
- Nancy Pearson
- George Reitnour
- Kyle Spencer
- Chris Vogt-Hennessy