Nils Peterson (pictured) and Naomi Clark founded what is now called Poetry Center San José in 1978. As its first Executive Director, Naomi and her husband hosted workshops with such poets as Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, and William Stafford. The Center’s main objective has been to provide a place for our community of poets to come together, improve their craft, and support one another. Readings, workshops, and academic programs have been continual.

Hundreds of exceptional writers from around the world have read from their works and conducted workshops for the large community of writers in the Bay Area over the past 40+ years, among them Yehuda Amichai, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Lucille Clifton; Poets Laureate Billy Collins, Rita Dove, and Robert Hass; Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirschfield, Carolyn Kizer, Li-Young Lee, W. S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich, Gerald Stern, the late Czeslaw Milosz, US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, Sharon Olds and many others.

Previously run out of board members’ garages, PCSJ officially opened the Markham House as its headquarters on May 26, 2002, in a ceremony led by NEA chair Dana Gioia. Francisco X. Alarcon, nominated as California’s Poet Laureate, read at the dedication along with Jack and Adele Foley. The building—moved from its previous location to History Park and subsequently restored, rewired, painted and furnished with the support of many volunteers and sponsors—was the house where Edwin Markham lived near the San José State campus in the late 1800s. It contains an exhibit of Markham’s memorabilia and poetry and the start of several specific libraries for poets.

PCSJ also publishes the literary journal Caesura, which has gained a national reputation. Two of its poems have earned Pushcart Prizes and cover designs by designer Joe Miller have been published in books on design and typography.