International Poetry Forum

The International Poetry Forum (IPF) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1966 by Samuel John Hazo in Pittsburgh, PA. Since its inception, the IPF has hosted poetry readings and educational programs by over 800 poets and performers from more than 50 countries at the Carnegie Lecture Hall, Carnegie Music Hall, Heinz Hall, and other venues in Pittsburgh. The organization has also presented a series of performances at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Alumni of the IPF include nine Nobel Prize laureates, 14 Academy Award winners, 28 U.S. Poet Laureates, 39 National Book Award winners, and 47 Pulitzer Prize winners. Often cited as one of the most significant poetry programs in the country, the IPF has received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian for its contributions to the arts.

History
With initial funding from the Mellon Trust, the International Poetry Forum's inaugural reading featured Archibald MacLeish at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Lecture Hall on October 19, 1966. Other poets to perform at the IPF have included W.H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Octavio Paz, Elizabeth Bishop, Czesław Miłosz, Robert Penn Warren, Derek Walcott, Gwendolyn Brooks, Adonis, Donald Hall, John Berryman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Merrill, Mary Karr, Dana Gioia, Richard Wilbur, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Robert Lowell, May Swenson, Adrienne Rich, Jan Beatty, W.S. Merwin, Joseph Brodsky, John Ashbery, Denise Levertov, Tomas Tranströmer, Billy Collins, Lucille Clifton, Paul Muldoon, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Joyce Carol Oates, and Terrance Hayes.

Participating actors have included Anthony Hopkins, Gregory Peck, Brooke Shields, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Ellen Burstyn, José Ferrer, Danny Glover, and James Earl Jones. The IPF has also featured novelists such as Kurt Vonnegut, Chinua Achebe, and Saul Bellow, playwrights such as Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams, musicians such as Judy Collins, Noel Harrison, and The Clancy Brothers, and public figures such as Queen Noor of Jordan and Princess Grace of Monaco.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, the IPF has subsisted on foundation grants and individual support. Citing Hazo's retirement and a scarcity of grant funding during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the IPF paused its poetry readings in 2009. During its initial run, the IPF hosted its own press and funded initiatives like the Poets-in-Person outreach program, which sent authors to speak at schools across Western Pennsylvania.

In 2023, after a 14-year hiatus, Hazo announced the revival of the International Poetry Forum, naming local academic Jake Grefenstette as his successor. Grefenstette has cited plans to relaunch poetry readings and educational outreach initiatives during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Legacy
In 1967, the University of Pittsburgh Press launched the Pitt Poetry Series in collaboration with the International Poetry Forum as a platform for publishing winning manuscripts of the IPF's United States Award, which was awarded from 1967-1977.

Samuel Hazo, IPF founder and director of 43 years, was named Pennsylvania’s first Poet Laureate in 1993, a position he served for a decade. For his work directing the IPF, Hazo received the Griffin Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame, the Hazlett Award for Excellence in Literature from the Pennsylvania Governor, and the Forbes Medal for Outstanding Cultural Contributions to Western Pennsylvania.

In 2001, Hazo established the IPF archives at Carlow University. Audio recordings for the 1966-2009 sessions have since been digitized and made available through the International Poetry Forum Collection at Carlow’s Grace Library.

In 2022, the Carlow University Art Gallery opened an exhibition entitled “To Hear it With Our Eyes: Activist Voices in the International Poetry Forum (1966-1974),” which explored the writing and activism of IPF participants like Derek Walcott, Adonis, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Kurt Vonnegut.

In January 2023, in advance of the announcement of the IPF relaunch, Carlow University presented “The Power of Poetry: Celebrating the Legacy of the International Poetry Forum,” a public event featuring poetry readings by Samuel Hazo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Blanco, and Tracy K. Smith.