Download the Full Draft of the MassPOP Mission

A Few Words about the Massachusetts Poetry Outreach Project

The Massachusetts Poetry Outreach Project (MassPOP)is a partnership that includes the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (MFH), with Cambridge's Commonwealth Foundation currently serving as fiscal agent. The program is the brainchild of Carlisle businessman and community organizer Michael Ansara and former U.S. Congressman Chet Atkins. The director of the project is MCC staff member Charles Coe.

The purpose of the project is to create resources to aid and support the Massachusetts poetry community. The MassPOP proposal (which you can read on this website) lists as its first goal the creation of a database that will include Massachusetts poets, presenters, writing programs, venues and links to various technical assistance resources for poets.

MassPOP has received seed money from MFH and private sources to undertake two preliminary tasks:

1. To conduct a series of focus groups across the state to solicit feedback and suggestions about the project design and goals. Focus group attendees were asked to outline what they considered the general challenges facing the Massachusetts poetry community, suggest what kind of information should be included in the database, and determine which of the other possible initiatives listed in the project proposal should be considered priorities.

2. To hire a person to coordinate assembling the database. (More funding is being sought to undertake step two of this part of the project--to post the database information online.) Writer and editor Joseph Gallagher has been selected for this position.

We encourage Massachusetts poets to enter your name and information in our database, and to join the MassPOP listserve to join the conversation about how to support and encourage poets and poetry across the commonwealth.

If you have any questions about MassPOP, please contact Charles Coe at charles.coe@art.state.ma.us.