Rochester Poets

Founded in 1922 as the Rochester, NY chapter of the Poetry Society of America, Rochester Poets is the area's oldest, ongoing literary organization. The group ceased its affiliation with the Society in the 1980s in order to accept a wider variety of members; at that time, the organization adopted its current name.

Meetings are held monthly on the second Saturday at the Center at High Falls Gallery; the organization held monthly readings at Writers & Books from 2003-2005; in January of 2006 the venue changed to St. John Fisher College. Rochester Poets sends out regular email flyers of area literary events, publishes a monthly newsletter and The Pinnacle Hill Review*, an annual anthology of selected member work. The group maintains a website; a mailing list (informing subscribers of area literary events)
which can be joined via the website; and a Blog.

Past and current members of note include Al Poulin, Jr. (1938-1996), Pat Janus, Dale Davis, Leah Zazulyer, Cornelius Eady, Jordan Smith, Etta Ruth Weigl, Israel Emiot (1909-1978), Gary Lehmann, John Roche, Vincent Golphin, Anne Coon, Wynne McClure, Ruth Kennedy, Francesca Gulì, Paul Humphrey (1915-2001), Eleanor McQuilken (1908-2004), George Monagan (1925-2005), David Michael Nixon, Linda Allardt, Patricia Roth Schwartz, Judith Kitchen, Stan Rubin, and Frank Judge, the current president.

Other Rochester area poets of note are Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914), William Heyen, and Anthony Piccione (1939-2001). E.E. Cummings, though not a Rochesterian, has a connection to the city through Dr. James Sibley Watson, a wealthy Harvard classmate who became a patron of the arts, serving as a benefactor to Cummings throughout much of the poet's life.

• The anthology has had various titles over the years, among them Touchstone, Gleam, Images, and Daylight Burning Lanterns.