Poetry at Stonecoast

The Stonecoast MFA offers a rich, challenging, and exciting program in poetry writing overseen by Stonecoast's Director, a nationally known poet, editor, critic and translator. Our faculty are expert in a range of poetries, from poetry that comes to life in performance, to poetry grounded in the emotional power of voice and the image, to poetry exploring innovative new movements in poetics, to poetry that resonates with an understanding of form.

Though poetry students come to Stonecoast from all backgrounds and levels of experience—from national award-winners who have published multiple books, to winners of slam competitions, to highly talented unpublished poets—all find at Stonecoast the same vital energy, warmth of community, and stimulating, serious dedciation to the art.

Lively ongoing dialogue among poetry faculty and visiting faculty at the residencies means that students are not aesthetically isolated, but may become part of discussions central to the heart of contemporary poetics. Some special areas of faculty interest include political poetry, poetry in translation, poetry and visual art, persona peotry, poetry in performance, prose poetry, metrical poetry and prosody, reviewing poetry, the free verse line, and persona poetry.

From interdisciplinary projects with music, art and film to fertile interactions with writers in other genres, poetry at Stonecoast is not isolated from the rest of the world, but is enriched by other artists and writers. The regular “Stonecoast Off the Page ” poetry gathering each residency, where memorized poetry is performed, is an especially joyous celebration of poetry’s power and pleasure by writers from the entire Stonecoast community.

Stonecoast poetry students and alums are already making their mark. They have taught at the Cave Canem Retreat and at universities nationwide, edit internationally known literary journals such as Canada's Antigonish Review, and have won such prestigious prizes as the National Poetry Competition (U.K.) and the National Poetry Series.

At once unusually broad and unusually deep, a Stonecoast education in poetry is one of unique substance and quality. We hope you will want to learn more about Poetry at Stonecoast. Please explore the related links at the right to find out more about our wonderful program.

Related Links

About the Poetry Curriculum

Poetry Faculty

Visiting Poets and Editors

Sample Poetry Presentations

Poetry in a Multi-Genre Program: a Note from Annie Finch

Alumni Profile