This fall, we celebrated the day 60 years ago that legendary poet Robert Frost and our founder Ruth Stephan dedicated the Poetry Center on the University of Arizona campus. Below, you find a range of ways we are marking this exciting anniversary. Whether you are new to the Center or a familiar friend, we hope you’ll explore and enjoy these programs.
On November 17, 2020
the University of Arizona Poetry Center turned 60!
Watch the virtual celebration from this momentous occasion. Anniversary wishes, historical highlights, and toasts with special guests were shared throughout evening with friends, family, and poets from around the country.
Hear messages from Joy Harjo, Carolyn Forché, Sandra Cisneros, Alberto Ríos, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Carl Phillips, Li-Young Lee, Naomi Shihab Nye, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
OTHER WAYS TO CELEBRATE:
Interactive 360 Tour of the Poetry Center
Join the Poetry Center staff and poets Robert Hass, Carolyn Forche, Brenda Hillman, Li-Young Lee and Carl Phillips for a self-guided tour of the Center -- its history, its programs, and its enduring legacy.
Visual History of the Poetry Center
This visual timeline presents key Poetry Center milestones over the past 60 years, including photographs, letters, posters, and broadsides from our archives.
60 Books for 60 Years
This online exhibit documents sixty new additions to the Poetry Center’s Rare Book Room, made possible by the Center’s new special acquisitions endowment. Highlights include artist’s books, rare books by celebrated poets, and books by poets working in the American Southwest. These new acquisitions represent the exciting breadth and range of American poetry in the past 60 years.
Directors’ Choice
Past and present Poetry Center leadership has selected historical readings from the Center’s audiovisual archive, Voca, to present at virtual listening parties this fall. Readers from each decade of the Center’s existence include Robert Creeley, Adrienne Rich, Lucille Clifton, W.S. Merwin, Alberto Rios, Ofelia Zepeda, Sherwin Bitsui and Terrance Hayes.
20 Arizona Poets
Arizona is home to a plethora of acclaimed and much-beloved poets. This online exhibition features 20 Arizona poets who represent diverse viewpoints, styles and backgrounds, and all of whom have an important connection to Arizona.