Well Versed Since 2007
A pollinator habitat for creative practice
Poetry Barn is the Catskills home and founding project of the Academy of Intentional Magic.
It began as a series of online poetry workshops—among the earliest of their kind—bringing writers together across distance long before such formats were common.
In 2017, the physical property was acquired to give that online community an in-person meeting place.
Since then, Poetry Barn has served as a gathering space for poets and artists, where creative practice and the region’s most comprehensive contemporary poetry collection grow side by side.
Over the years, Poetry Barn has hosted workshops, readings, concerts, retreats, conversations, and performances led by local, national, and international poets and artists alongside emerging voices. Craft and play have always gone hand in hand.
That spirit remains.
Today, Poetry Barn continues as:
a physical gathering space for writers and artists in the Catskills
a founding program within the Academy of Intentional Magic
home to the region’s most comprehensive contemporary poetry collection
a site for readings, workshops, and creative events
The Academy of Intentional Magic
Expanding the work across disciplines, geographies, and forms
As the work expanded—across disciplines, geographies, and forms—it became clear that Poetry Barn needed a larger container.
The Academy of Intentional Magic emerged as that container: a nonprofit home for writing, visual art, music, performance, and creative practice, guided by attention to the more-than-human world.
Poetry Barn remains the physical place where this work began and continues—a founding project of the Academy, and an active site of gathering, books, and creative exchange.
Collections
A contemporary poetry library and used bookstore in the Catskills
The Poetry Barn Library & Bookstore is home to more than 4,000 volumes, forming the region’s most comprehensive private collection devoted primarily to contemporary poetry.
The shelves also include books on poetic craft, poets’ biographies, anthologies, art books, and rare or out-of-print editions acquired over many years.
The library and bookstore are open during events and available by appointment, allowing time for unhurried browsing. Books circulate through the community; we simply ask borrowers to leave their name and contact information and return books in the condition they were borrowed.
Used and select new books are available for purchase, priced to support access and keep books moving—typically about 30% below retail.
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