The Centre for Contemporary Poetry of the University of Bologna was founded in 1997 under the presidency of Ezio Raimondi. Today, it operates as a departmental centre, bringing together numerous academics and a large community of students engaged in creative writing.
The Centre promotes workshops, student-led activities, seminars, and festivals, fostering meaningful encounters with literature within university life. Over nearly three decades of activity, it has welcomed to Bologna some of the most distinguished figures in Italian and international poetry, including Nobel Prize laureates Wislawa Szymborska, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott.
The experience of the Centre for Contemporary Poetry has also contributed to the development of numerous writers who are now well established within the fields of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism.