FLORENCE POETS SOCIETY          PO BOX 60355    FLORENCE, MA 01062-0355    POETRY IS PART OF EVERYONE OF US. Who we are............. Florence Poets Society was founded during the summer of 2004 by Carl Russo and Thomas Clark for the purpose of poets promoting and sharing their work with other poets and the public.  The group met regularly mostly at the Florence Community Center until fall of 2006 when we began meeting at the Lilly Library Community Room a larger more modern venue.   In march of 2005 the founding co-directors applied for and recieved a Northampton Arts Council grant for an outdoor Poetry Festival. This event was a great success.  That Festival was again funded with a dramatic increase in funding for 2006 and in 2007 for the third time.  The Society has further reached out to promote poetry with a Poetry Slam in January of 2006, 2007 and our most succesful to date 2008, readings at local art galleries, the William Cullen Bryant Homestead and numerous special events throughout Western Massachusetts. We also work with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Library to collect and archive the written works of local poets in a special collection.  In addition a highly promoted and very successful international contest will be continued into a third year. The Society has published its first printed Annual Review in October of 2006 and a second one appears in October of 2007 both with the Help of a Northampton Arts council grant and both for sale on this site.  The Florence Poets Society is reaching out  with poetry to our community via a radio program, a publishing organization Florence Poets Society Press and soon a community cable television program.  Membership is growing at a rapid pace. Our group is very active in numerous community poetry venues.  All the while the group continues to meet regularly. Members seek to be informed on and active in all local poetry resources and events.  Membership is $15.00 per year beginning in September of each calendar year and running to August 31 of the following year. postmaster@florencepoetssociety.org