Pittsburgh Poets · Poets | Criteria | About
Literary history is full of schools: the New York School, the Black Mountain poets, the Confessionals. It is tempting to think of them as natural kinds, groups that existed and waited to be discovered. This site starts from the opposite view. A school is crafted by its most ardent students. Someone decides which poets belong, which ties count, and which differences to ignore. The school is the result of that work.
That makes a "Pittsburgh poet" a claim, not a fact. So this site does not just list names. For each poet it records the specific ties to the city, each with a date and a source, and it says why the entry is here. A reader who disagrees with an inclusion can see exactly where the line was drawn.
Each entry is a plain text file. Entries are signed and dated. When the inclusion criteria change, the change is logged on that page.
Corrections and additions are welcome.