Join us for an unforgettable live-streamed evening of poetry from the California Sierra Nevada.

In person in Olympic Valley, and live online, our annual Benefit Poetry Reading will feature poems from our 2023 Poetry Staff & Special Guests. We are proud to welcome eight beloved poets to Olympic Valley, including three winners of the Pulitzer Prize, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, a winner of the International Griffin Poetry Prize, multiple Guggenheim recipients, an Ohioana Book Award winner, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winner.

All proceeds benefit the 2024 Poetry Program scholarship fund.
The Community of Writers has a robust scholarship program; its purpose is to allow attendance by poets who would otherwise be unable to attend, or poets from communities whose voices are underrepresented in the poetry world. These scholarships traditionally come in the form of tuition waivers, but they often also cover housing and food for participants, the costs of which have increased 22% since 2019, the last year we met in person. This increase in the price of housing and meals has put significant strain on our budget for 2023, but we hope that through your contribution this evening, we will be able to sustain the array of excellence and diversity among our poets that we have made possible year after year, ensuring that great poets become a part of our community regardless of their ability to pay. You can contribute by purchasing additional giveaway entries, or by giving directly to our scholarship fund. Many thanks for your generosity. If you would like to establish a scholarship fund to be granted annually, contact Brett Hall Jones at brett@communityofwriters.org.

Watch last year’s benefit poetry reading here.

Kazim Ali • Victoria Chang • Forrest Gander • Carmen Giménez • Brenda Hillman • Evie Shockley
Special Guests: Robert Hass & Sharon Olds