Since its founding in 1979, the Sacramento Poetry Center has been a major force and advocate for literary artists in Northern California, especially in the Sacramento area.

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We offer readings, workshops, writers' conferences, publications, a lending library, and more to our local community.

Though primarily serving as the premier literary center for the greater Sacramento metropolitan area, SPC’s publications are recognized nationally, and its annual writers’ conference has featured some of the most important poets of our time, including Pulitzer Prize winners Gary Snyder and Philip Levine, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, and other luminaries such as Lucille Clifton, Galway Kinnell, Robert Bly, Diane DiPrima, Carolyn Forche, Anne Waldman, Maya Angelou, Jack Hirschman, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Dorianne Laux, Kim Addonizio, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Cole Swensen, Michael McClure, Jose Montoya, Robert Creeley, Robert Peters, and many others. As important are the scores of local and regional poets, established and emerging, who have participated in SPC readings and events over the decades. They are why we exist.

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Unique among literary centers in that it is not affiliated with a university, The Sacramento Poetry Center, while maintaining close ties with the area’s universities and colleges, is a fully independent organization, affording it, and associated artists, the opportunity to explore the medium and opportunities unrestricted except by its own bylaws.