2025 GYLYS VILLANELLE PRIZEWINNER
The Knife, The Throat by Dawn Manning I’ve had a knife at my throat and didn’t die, though when I swallow it tastes like pennies.This scar’s my pearl choker—chic as a…
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Welcome!
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.
Our Program
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 include former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove as well as 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.
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.
Learn More
The 2024 Conference runs, in person, from Tuesday May 21, to Friday May 24. 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.
What’s Happening
What the Jon Tribble Fellowship Means to Me
by Dustin Brookshire As I reflected on why community is important to me, I was transported back to childhood and adolescence. Growing up Southern Baptist in a small, north Georgia…
Audio Recording of Keynote from 2023 Conference
As we enter the countdown to Poetry by the Sea Conference 2024, we wanted to share the magnificent Keynote Reading from Marilyn Chin at the 2023 Conference, reading from her…
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