Journal History

In September of 1997, San Diego State University's Department of English and Comparative Literature in conjunction with SDSU Press began publication of an annual journal of contemporary poetry called Poetry International. The journal was made possible by a generous grant from the Edwin Watkins Foundation, bequeathed to the English Department for the specific purpose of publishing a poetry journal. 

From the initial publication, the journal has been committed to surveying a wide range of poetry in America and throughout the world. The credo for each issue is summarized in these lines from Walt Whitman, which is printed following the title page of each issue:

Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are,
but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad,
I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check, with original energy.

The journal reflects this diversity and energy. Issues include poems by well established poets like John Ashbery, Linda Pastan, Ruth Stone, Philip Levine, Charles Simic, Robert Bly, Diane Wakoski, Maxine Kumin, Jane Hirschfield, Ai, Hayden Carruth, Stephen Dunn, Billy Collins, Adrienne Rich, Gary Soto, Albert Goldbarth, Marge Piercy, James Tate, Marilyn Hacker, and many others alongside new voices like Thylias Moss, Susan Wheeler, Jan Lee Ande, Brett Foster and Nan Cohen.

Each issue also includes a translation section which features poetry from many countries of the world translated into English. Our translators have included the late John Frederick Nims, W.S. Merwin, Robert Bly, Lisa Katz, Mark Weiss and Martha Collins. Beginning with Issue #4 we committed to featuring the poetry of a different nation of the world as a special section in each issue. Thus far we have surveyed the poetry of Russia, Israel, Vietnam and Cuba, and post-colonial English language poetry across the world. Issue 10, released for 2006, features contemporary Iraqi poetry.