Elliston Poetry Readings

The George Elliston Poetry Fund has fostered the development of promising young poets and honored the achievements of established poets since 1951. Each year, through the Poet-in-Residence program, a distinguished poet is brought to campus to give public lectures and readings and to conduct poetry seminars and workshops.

Elliston Poets in years past have included Rodney Jones, John Berryman, Stephen Eberhart, Denise Lowell, Robert Frost, Randall Jarrell, Karl Shapiro, Richard Eberhart, Denise Levertov, Joshn Ashbery, Richard Howard, and Mary Oliver.

The Elliston Fund also supports a lecture series that recently has brought to campus speakers such as Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz, Adrienne Rich, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Margarel Atwood.

One of the best collections of contemporary poetry in the country --more than 10,000 books, magazines, records and tapes relating to 20th-century poetry -- is housed in the Elliston Poetry Room. Students and faculty interested in modern poetry can take advantage of reading space and listening facilities as well as frequent workshops and student poetry readings. Within the Department of English, an Elliston Fellowship supports graduate students in their study of poetry.