EAAS Poetry Network

About the Network 

The Poetry Network brings together academics and postgraduates from across Europe and further afield with the aim of deepening our readings, knowledge, and understanding of North American poetry. The network engages with work from Early American poets to the present day, from print cultures to digital contexts. In doing so, we seek to map and re-map significant and neglected legacies within literary history, thereby tracing new forms of inclusion. We understand our work to renew the vital role poetry plays in the study of North American culture, society, politics and aesthetics. At its core, the Poetry Network offers space for scholars across Europe to reflect more deeply on shared intellectual practices and our responsibility as educators.

We are committed to facilitating cross-institutional collaborations as they evolve. Since 2022, the group has been meeting on a monthly basis to close read poems and pursue collective idea exchange, which is carried to biennial meetings of the EAAS in the form of roundtables and panel discussions. In May 2025, we hosted our inaugural symposium, "Contemporary Poetics, Communities, and Publics," in Germany. As a result we also share our various pedagogies with the aim of negotiating best practices.