International Poetry Forum

06/02/2026

What advice do you have for publishing a book of poetry? And who are your favorite publishers?

05/31/2026

Rest in peace Joe Negri (1926–2026), beloved jazz guitarist and “Handyman Negri” of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame.

A longtime educator and friend of both music and poetry, Negri performed at the International Poetry Forum on multiple occasions, including this performance with Samuel Hazo in the early 1980s.

Pittsburgh was lucky to call Joe one of our own.

05/29/2026

In honor of 100,000 Instagram followers, here’s the opening to a William Blake poem that Grace Kelly read at our reading series back in 1978.

05/29/2026

Not to be dramatic, buuuut Pgh Book Fest is your best plan for tommorrow. See you at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main (Oakland) at 10:00 a.m.!

05/29/2026

Hopkins’ “Carrion Comfort,” as recited by Samuel Hazo, 97, founder of the International Poetry Forum.

05/27/2026

Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of the most sonically interesting writers of all time. This poem, “The Windhover,” opens with a triple alliteration, a sextuple alliteration, and much more. Almost every square inch of the lines are filled with some sort of sonic repetition.

As a nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of spoken poetry, the International Poetry Forum has long taken Hopkins as a major influence on our work. Visit our website (link in bio) to learn more about the International Poetry Forum.

05/25/2026

05/24/2026

05/22/2026

Robert Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” is one of the most famous poems in the English language. It also has one of the famous commas (or HAD one of the most famous commas) of all time.

In this clip, International Poetry Forum director Jake Grefenstette discusses two versions of the poem’s final stanza. What’s at stake with this punctuation? Let us know what you think!

Visit our website (link in bio) to learn more about the International Poetry Forum.

05/16/2026

https://pittsburghquarterly.com/articles/a-pittsburgh-legacy/

Pittsburgh is known for many things, but some of its most significant legacies are largely unknown or underplayed. Among the most famous are as the steel capital of the U.S., with the city’s contribution to the allied victory in World War II best described by Winston Churchill as the war that was ...