Set up to support the general mission of the Worcester County Poetry Association: bringing poetry to the people of Central Massachusetts. Financial support from The Founders’ Fund helps “keep the lights on” by supporting office rent, contract help, postage, supplies, programming, and everything needed to keep a small non-profit running.

The initial funding combined separate accounts in memory of founding member Corrine Bostic with donations from founding members Michael and Mary Pat True. By consolidating these into one endowment managed by the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, the Worcester County Poetry Association may count on regular annual support to further its mission.

The Worcester Review Endowment Fund supports the ongoing operations of the print journal of the Worcester County Poetry Association. The income received from the fund supplements funds from the Worcester County Poetry Association. 

It was created through a Worcester County Poetry Association fund-raising effort. In 1999, the Massachusetts Cultural Commission offered the Worcester County Poetry Association a Non-Profit Finance Fund 2-for-1 fund-raising match opportunity. If the Worcester County Poetry Association could raise $50,000, the Non-Profit Finance Fund would add $25,000 to endow The Worcester Review and ensure the continued operation of this outstanding Worcester literary journal. Under the direction of Maria Florez, Carle Johnson, Rodger Martin, Robert Steele, and David Thoreen, the challenge was accepted. Through support from Worcester County industry, commerce, banking, and individuals like Mary and Donald Melville, the Fund was halfway to its goal in a very short time. Through the generous support of the people of Worcester County, who donated over $12,000 to the Fund in two days in answer to Stanley Kunitz’s request for support of this local literary journal, the Worcester County Poetry Association raised the needed $50,000 total. These combined efforts allowed us to capitalize The Worcester Review Endowment Fund and make permanent what Worcester County Institution for Savings president Hal Cabot called “one of the best articles of national public relations Worcester has.”

The Fund jointly honors the memory of Stanley Kunitz and, especially, the memory of Gregory Stockmal.

Greg and his wife Carol restored and maintained the Kunitz boyhood home at 4 Woodford Street. The Kunitz-Stockmal house has since been named a national Literary Landmark ©. The sudden death of Greg Stockmal in December 2008 shocked the local poetry community. The Gregory Stockmal Reading Fund was established in 2009 by the Worcester County Poetry Association in cooperation with Carol Stockmal. The Fund supports programming which continues the efforts of Greg Stockmal to honor American poet Stanley Kunitz and his legacy in Worcester. The annual Gregory Stockmal Reading is an integral part of this gift, recognizing Stanley Kunitz as the teacher and leader of his self-described “tribe” of poets, friends, and family by sponsoring Worcester-area readings by poets for whom Stanley Kunitz has been an inspiration.

Worcester-born US Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz was always a champion of the Worcester County Poetry Association. At his death, the WCPA received a bequest to support a prize named The Stanley Kunitz Award.  These funds and additional funds raised by the WCPA board established The Stanley Kunitz Award Fund.

In 2013 the board adopted guidelines for selecting award recipients. The award recognizes the total commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations that nurture poetry. The WCPA awarded the first Stanley Kunitz Medal in 2015.

Additional details, including nomination guidelines and past winners, can be found on the Stanley Kunitz Medal page.

Thanks to the generosity of the Annual College Poetry Contest founder, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, the WCPA has established an endowment with the Greater Worcester Community Foundation to support and sustain this annual literary event. Sweeney founded the yearly competition in 2008 as the Association’s president.

Her gift will also allow the WCPA to honor two nationally and internationally known poets who Worcester profoundly influenced: Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Neustadt Prize; and Etheridge Knight (1931-1991), winner of the American Book Award. From now on, the two yearly prizes awarded at the competition will be known as the Elizabeth Bishop Manuscript Prize and the Etheridge Knight Performance Prize. Bishop, who was born in Worcester, spent part of her childhood living there with her paternal grandparents; her famous poem, “In the Waiting Room,” begins “In Worcester, Massachusetts . . .” Knight was “Born black in Mississippi,” as he explains in “A Poem for Myself.” Still, he lived in Worcester in the 1970s, founded the Free People’s Poetry Workshop, and became an important figure in the local poetry community.

The Dan Lewis Memorial Poetry Fellowship was established in 2021 in remembrance of Worcester poet Dan Lewis. The Fund’s purpose is to support, nurture, and develop the artistic capacities of an annual recipient poet through a cash award in support of education, engagement, expenses, literary research, and production that will best nurture that poet’s creativity. Any Worcester County poet will be eligible for the Fellowship. The WCPA board will develop other application guidelines and the selection process in the coming years.

Funds will be available to the WCPA for use starting in 2025.