Connecticut Poetry Circuit

Western Connecticut State University hosted the five Connecticut college students selected to be Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poets on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at the Kathwari Honors House. Among the featured poets was WCSU senior Meaghan Canavan, a Professional Writing student from Hopewell Junction, New York.

Canavan was joined by fellow Poetry Circuit poets Mia Alexander from Wesleyan University, August Bishop from Quinnipiac University, Alexa Schwartz from the University of Hartford and Saidie Zeiner-Morrish from Trinity College. WCSU and Quinnipiac are the only universities that have had a student selected as a Connecticut Poetry Circuit participant for three years in a row.

The Connecticut Poetry Circuit was established in 1968 to continue the work of the New England Poetry Circuit, which was founded in 1964 by the Academy of American Poets and Holly Stevens, daughter of the acclaimed poet and Hartford insurance executive Wallace Stevens. Each year, the Connecticut Poetry Circuit enlists a panel of poets to judge a statewide contest of college-student poets. Five student poets are selected to tour the circuit each spring and will read their work at a number of universities and events.