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Poetry by the Sea is a community of poets and educators committed to diversity, inclusiveness, and mutual respect in the pursuit of artistic excellence and creative growth. The yearly Conference, held in May, welcomes poets of all backgrounds in an environment that values and supports each person’s unique contribution and voice. Our picturesque retreat setting on the Connecticut shore facilitates an easy exchange of ideas among attendees, faculty, and guest speakers, and is an ideal locale for creative inspiration.
Conference attendees participate in workshops and attend panel discussions, readings, lectures, catered receptions, and a banquet. Workshops range from three-day intensives on craft techniques such as creative approaches to form, to two-day workshops on subjects such as theme poems, and one-day workshops on topics such as developing a creative practice and assembling a chapbook.
Noted Keynote Speakers and Spotlight Readers have included former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove as well as Greg Pardlo, Kevin Young, Marilyn Hacker, Marilyn Chin, Richie Hofmann, John Poch, and Adrian Matejka. Past lecturers include 2023 Oxford Professor of Poetry A. E. Stallings, Don Share, Ange Mlinko, and Jehanne Dubrow. This year’s lecturer is Major Jackson and the Keynote Speaker is Stephanie Burt.
Attendees take meals together with faculty and guest poets in an informal lunchroom setting and have the choice of boarding on site or at local hotels. Participants can also sign up to read their work at daily Participant Readings sessions and to sell their poetry books in our dedicated on-site book room. Evening readings by our acclaimed faculty are also open to non-Conference attendees from the local community.
The 2025 Conference runs, in person, from Tuesday May 27th, to Friday May 30th. Sign up for the PBTS Blog to find out about Keynote Speakers, featured Spotlight Readers, Guest Lecturers, and faculty. Registration opens in January. Join us!
To find out about our sonnet and book contests, click here. To read about our scholarship opportunities, click here. For more about the history of Poetry by the Sea and Kim Bridgford, the Conference founder, click here.
This year’s Conference is lucky to have as one of our Spotlight readers Oliver de la Paz, the 2023-2025 Poet Laureate of Worcester, Mass. You can read his bio here. In…
Perhaps no major poet other than Thomas Hardy rivals W. H. Auden in the variety of verse forms, meters, stanzas, and rhyme schemes the poet makes use of. If you’re…
Hard to believe that it’s been ten years since Kim Bridgford successfully organized and ran the first Poetry by the Sea Conference, in Madison, Conn. Much has changed—new faces, new…
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Our YouTube channel includes various videos from over the years.
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