Our Mission
Poetry Center San José's mission is to nurture and promote diverse literary expression in our community as a means of exploring, defining, and enriching the human experience.

In furtherance of our mission, we offer programs and services to stimulate passion for the literary arts and to inspire and support emerging and established writers. We collaborate with other organizations to ensure that these programs and services reflect the diversity of our community and to involve people from a wide range of backgrounds as audience and members.

Board of Directors
Kevin Arnold, President
Linda Lappin, Vice President
Dennis Noren, Secretary, Markham House Chair
Darrell De la Cruz, Interim Treasurer
Jasper Haze, Programming Chair
Jerry Dyer, Assistant, Markham House
Joe Miller, Design
Dennis Richardson, Willow Glen Reading Coordinator
Nils Peterson, Emeritus

Advisory Board:
Mimi Ahern, Membership
Kara Erdodi Arguello, Email Support
Sally Ashton
Carolyn Dille
Erica Goss, Programming, Publicity, and Publications
Pushpa McFarlane, Video Support
Robert Pesich
Christine Richardson, Willow Glen Readings
Mary Lou Taylor, Membership Coordinator

Job Opportunities
Poetry Center San José has volunteer positions available in the program committee, marketing committee and at the Markham House.
Click here for details

Funders
Poetry Center San José is member supported. Please join.

PCSJ, A History
Nils Peterson and Naomi Clark founded what is now called Poetry Center San José in 1978. As its first Executive Director, Naomi and her husband hosted early workshops with such poets as Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, and William Stafford. The Center’s main objective was to provide a place for the community of poets in the area to come together, improve their craft, and support one another. Readings, workshops, and academic programs, such as the James Wright symposium, have been continual.

Following Naomi Clark, Executive Directors Alan Soldofsky, John Mathias, Mary Ann Cook, Mary Ellison, Marie Highby, Lequita Vance-Watkins, and Kathie Isaac-Luke led the Poetry Center through some exciting times. Board Presidents Wilbert Crockett, Mary Lou Taylor, Jerry Pressman, Joanne Knapp, Daphne Crocker-White and current ten-year President Kevin Arnold each made unique contributions.

Hundreds of exceptional writers from around the world have read from their works and conducted workshops for the large community of writers in the Bay Area over the past thirty years, among them Yehuda Amichai, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Lucille Clifton; Poets Laureates Billy Collins, Rita Dove, and Robert Hass; Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirschfield, Carolyn Kizer, Li-Young Lee, W. S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich, Gerald Stern, the late Czeslaw Milosz and current US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan.

Previously run out of board members’ garages, PCSJ officially opened the Markham House as its headquarters on May 26, 2002, in a ceremony led by NEA chair Dana Gioia. Francisco X. Alarcon, nominated as California’s Poet Laureate, read at the dedication along with Jack and Adele Foley. The building—moved from its previous location to History Park and subsequently restored, rewired, painted and furnished with the support of many volunteers and sponsors—was the house where Edwin Markham lived near the San José State campus in the late 1800s. It contains an exhibit of Markham’s memorabilia and poetry and the start of several specific libraries for poets.

Nils Peterson has contributed countless workshops and readings. Longtime board member Joe Miller, an award-winning graphic artist and Professor at San José State, has created a unique look and feel for the Center’s website and correspondence. San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Center for Literary Arts at SJSU, Montalvo and the Silicon Valley Arts Council have each provided critical support and collaboration.

The last five years have brought new energy with the emergence of the California Poet’s Festival run by board member Sally Ashton, which has attracted poets and audience from all over the state led by longtime PCSJ friend Al Young, who addressed the group as the first California Poet Laureate.

PCSJ also publishes a literary journal, Caesura, which is quickly gaining a national reputation. Two of its poems have earned Pushcart Prizes. Recent editors include Kathie Isaac-Luke, Stephanie Pressman, Abby Pennington, and Kim Mahler. One of its recent editors, Erica Goss, won the first Edwin Markham Poetry Prize in 2007, judged by Al Young.