Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poems from the Community of Writers

Fifty years of poems from the Community of Writers’ poetry workshop

The Community of Writers (formerly Community of Writers at Squaw Valley) celebrates fifty years of its annual summer poetry workshop in Olympic Valley, California, with this collection of one hundred and forty poems first composed there. Edited by writers workshop codirector Lisa Alvarez and introduced by longtime poetry director Robert Hass, the book is divided into three sections: poems that evoke the Valley’s physical setting, with its granite-and-pine mountain beauty; poems that peer into the poetic process, filled with inspiration and idiosyncrasy; and poems of all shapes and kinds that owe their origins to the workshop and its productive morning review sessions. Contributors include both workshop staff and participants, among them Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds, Al Young, Matthew Zapruder, Harryette Mullen, Galway Kinnell, Rita Dove, Cornelius Eady, Robert Hass, and Forrest Gander.

The title of the collection comes from a question posed by original poetry director Galway Kinnell: “Then why to these rocks / Do I keep coming back why.” It speaks to the special community nurtured in this stunning setting, one that has inspired poets worldwide—many of whom developed significant bodies of award-winning work in its creative and generative atmosphere.

Lisa Alvarez is a professor of English at Irvine Valley College. Her poetry and prose has appeared in numerous literary journals. Alvarez coedited Writer’s Workshop in a Book: The Community of Writers on the Art of Fiction with Alan Cheuse and Orange County: A Literary Field Guide with Andrew Tonkovich. She codirects the annual Community of Writers summer conference in Olympic Valley, California, and lives in Modjeska Canyon.

Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995 to 1997, has published many books of poetry, including Time and Materials: Poems 1997–2005, which won the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.