About The Walt Whitman Bicentennial Convention

Welcome poetry fans! 

Long Island, NY is the home to the Birthplace of Walt Whitman, the famous, awe-inspiring American poet who has brought joy to so many people in our country and around the world. 

His birthday is Friday May 31st, and 2019 marks the 200th birthday anniversary. Long Island has a rich and vibrant poetic culture and community, and so we though, why not put together a special celebration for the weekend of his 200th birthday? 

Long Island, NY is home to Local Gems Press, a national publisher of poetry anthologies and collections as well as the Bards Against Hunger project which has events in over a dozen states. With these two solid connections, we decided not only to have a weekend that the local poetry community would never forget, but to invite poets from around the country (and beyond) to come and celebrate this once in a lifetime event in the place where Walt Whitman himself was born.