We meet at 7:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month in the first floor rear conference room of the Regency, on Madison Road at Observatory in Hyde Park.  Members submit a poem each month for critiquing by a critic who is a published poet or professor of English or Creative Writing (or both).
 
Occasional variations from this format are devoted to member-led workshops on subjects of interest to poets, such as marketing/submitting poems for publication, poetry writing practice, or the study of renowned poets.

GCWL History
The Greater Cincinnati Writer's League was founded on Friday, November 12, 1930 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William F. C. Tatman.  A group of writers and musicians had been invited there to consider forming a club for the purpose of criticizing poetry, short stories and articles submitted by members.  Twelve active members and an equal number of associate members formed the charter group.  George Elliston, who founded and endowed the Poetry Chair at the University of Cincinnati, was a charter member.  Mr. Tatman was elected as the club's first president.  A critic was appointed by the president to serve for a term of three months.  A reader of members' published work and a log editor were also appointed.  Eventually, growth in participation made it necessary to limit membership to sixty persons.

From this group evolved the Greater Cincinnati Writers League, which chose to meet on the second Friday of the month, a practice that has continued up to the present day.  At first meetings were held in members' homes, where music was always an important part of the agenda.  But in time, the group grew in size and it sought larger quarters - a room in a bank, the Alms Hotel, the Vernon Manor Hotel, and finally, the Regency Condominiums on Madison Road, where it has met for the last twenty or so years.  No longer in members' homes, music was dropped from the format, and concentration shifted to the writing and critiquing only of poetry.

Over the years the organization has boasted some illustrious members.  There was a Cincinnati judge, Judge Bill Dammarell; a number of University professors; several newspaper editors; and many other published poets.  There was Louis Sanker, a mail carrier, who wrote his poems in his head as he walked his route.  There was Toyo Kawakami, a Nisei, who wrote of her internment in an Oregon camp during World War II.  And there have been at least two radio personalities - Cecil Hale Hartzell with his program of music and poetry, Moon River, and the late Oscar Treadwell, who hosted Jazz with O.T.

Poems by earlier members found publication in local newspapers - the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Times Star, and in out-of-town papers such as The Denver Post and the New York Times.  Members' poems were also published in periodicals, primarily the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping Magazine, and in Talaria, which was edited by two Greater Cincinnati Writers League members.
Among the charter members of GCWL was George Elliston, a newspaperwoman whose bequest was later to found and endow the Poetry Chair at the University of Cincinnati.  This brought to our city over the years many poets of note:  Robert Frost, Richard Howard, Heather McHugh, and Mary Oliver, to name a few.  They gave, and their successors continue to give poetry readings open to the public and workshops for creative writing students.

Members who served as President from 1930 to 1960 were William Tatman, Rev. Frank Hartman, Ellis O. DeCamp, Florence Goff Schwartz, Prof. C. M. Hutchings, Samuel Schierloh, Rev. John Versteeg, Louis J. Sanker, William Risen, and Cecil Hale Hartzell.

Today the group has dues paying members, plus a number of other active participants, all poets. 

GCWL publishes members poetry.
Our most recent anthology, Significant Others, was published in 1999.  In addition to occasional readings at book stores or coffee shops, we sponsor an annual poetry contest to recruit new talent among the Greater Cincinnati literary community.
 
GCWL annual member dues are $25.00.  Anyone who writes poetry seriously, or has the desire to learn more about perfecting poetry writing skills, is welcome to attend our meetings; donation appreciated.
 
We study the poetry of famous poets.  We enter, and win, state and national competitions.  We invite prominent poets of the area to be guest critics.  Perhaps most important, we sponsor contests and open readings.
 
Poetry Florishes.
The vivacious poets who come to join us and those whom we join in coffee houses and other places in the Greater Cincinnati area offer exciting evidence that poetry is alive here, as it is throughout the United States.  We of the Greater Cincinnati Writers League respond with enthusiasm to this resurgence of poetry.