International Poetry Forum

“...for poetry to be fully appreciated, it should be read aloud.” - Dr. Samuel Hazo

Schedule

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“...for poetry to be fully appreciated, it should be read aloud.” - Dr. Samuel Hazo

About

Mission of The Poetry Forum
The mission of the International Poetry Forum is to demonstrate the relevance and centrality of poetry to the public through the oral presentation of poetry.

Dr. Samuel Hazo
The author of books of poetry, fiction, essays and plays, Samuel Hazo is the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum. He is also McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Duquesne University, where he taught for forty-three years. From 1950 until 1957 he served in the United States Marine Corps, completing his tour as a captain. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Arts degree from Duquesne University and his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. Some of his books include A Flight to Elsewhere and The Song of the Horse: Selected Poems, 1958-2008 (Poetry), Stills and This Part of the World (Fiction), Feather, Mano a Mano and Watching Fire, Watching Rain (Drama), The Power of Less: Essays on Poetry and Public Speech and Spying for God (Essays) and The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You (Memoir). His translations include Denis de Rougemont’s The Growl of Deeper Waters, Nadia Tueni’s Lebanon: Twenty Poems for One Love and Adonis’ The Pages of Day and Night. His book of poems, Just Once: New and Previous Poems, received the Maurice English Poetry Award in 2003. The University of Notre Dame, from which he received the Griffin Award for Creative Writing in 2005, awarded him his tenth honorary doctorate in 2008. A National Book Award finalist, he was chosen the first State Poet of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Governor Robert Casey in 1993, and he served until 2003.

History of The Forum
From 1966 to 2009 the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sponsored poetry recitals and other poetry-related events by poets, actors and singers from 38 foreign countries plus our own. These included Nobel Awardees, Pulitzer and National Book Award Winners, Academy and Tony Awardees plus numerous other significant poets and performers. This resulted in more than 500 programs that were presented not only in Pittsburgh but in Washington, D.C. (for a ten-year period at the Hirshhorn Auditorium in the Smithsonian Institution.)

All of these performances were recorded for archival purposes. They included programs by Archibald MacLeish, Richard Wilbur, Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, Linda Pastan, Princess Grace of Monaco, Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, Robert Penn Warren, Naomi Shihab Nye, Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Muriel Rukeyser, Philip Levine, Queen Noor of Jordan, Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, Adam Zagajewski, Seamus Heaney, Jo McDougall, Stanley Kunitz, Jorge Luis Borges, Dana Gioia, Octavio Paz, James Earl Jones, George Seferis, Brooke Shields, Wendell Berry, Louis Simpson, Adonis and others. Indeed, the work of the best poets and actors of the last half of the Twentieth Century is permanently preserved in the archives of the International Poetry Forum. All of these programs are now mounted on the Forum’s website, which is permanently based at and sponsored by Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Carlow University is also the repository of all of the Forum’s files, artwork and other archival materials, including videos of all programs from 1980 through 2009. These materials are available for study by students and scholars upon request.

“...for poetry to be fully appreciated, it should be read aloud.” - Dr. Samuel Hazo

Support

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Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for grants to subsidize the creation of the website (theinternationalpoetryforum.org): The Drue Heinz Foundation, an Anonymous Donor, The Pittsburgh National Bank Foundation, The Hillman Foundation, and individual grants from David Conrad, Louis Vitti, Esq., Scott Sander, Mary Jane Gearns and P. David Pappert.