Update — October 2026: Still Waiting for the Rockford Literary Renaissance
Looking back at this introduction, I'm struck by my own optimism. There was, in fact, no Rockford literary renaissance happening at the time, nor has one materialized in the years since. I never heard anything about this particular writer again after publishing his work. That doesn't mean he stopped writing, of course, only that he disappeared from my view. But the larger pattern is familiar. After forty years of involvement in the Rockford literary scene, I have spent an extraordinary amount of time anticipating a cultural awakening that never quite arrives.
I suppose that's partly my own fault. I've always wanted Rockford to become a place where literature matters, where writers are taken seriously, where an actual literary community might develop beyond the occasional reading, self-congratulatory awards ceremony, or short-lived enthusiasm for some promising newcomer. Every few years I convince myself something significant might be happening. And every few years I discover that I'm still waiting.
Consider the Rockford Poet Laureate position. When the position was originally established, I was offered the opportunity and declined. In the years since, the selection process has, at least on one occasion, produced a poet whose literary credentials I could not substantiate with a single credible publication credit. That may seem like an unnecessarily harsh observation, but a poet laureateship is supposed to recognize literary accomplishment. If publication history and demonstrated achievement aren't meaningful considerations, what exactly is being recognized?
The situation with the Rockford Area Arts Awards was equally revealing. When those awards were introduced, literature wasn't even included as a category. Visual artists, musicians, and other creative disciplines received recognition, but apparently it hadn't occurred to anyone that writers might also be artists. I raised the omission publicly and pressed the issue until it became a subject of debate. Eventually, a literary category was added. And whom did they recognize? An out-of-town writer of formulaic romance fiction. Whatever one thinks of that genre, it was a peculiar response to a discussion about recognizing the literary accomplishments of writers in the Rockford area.
None of this is intended to diminish the visual artists who have made meaningful contributions to Rockford's cultural life. Quite the opposite. Rockford has invested considerable attention, publicity, institutional support, and civic pride in its visual arts community. I have worked alongside many of those artists and admire what they've accomplished. What I question is why literature has so consistently been treated as an afterthought, something to acknowledge only when someone complains loudly enough about its absence.
A literary renaissance requires more than a handful of people writing poems. It requires a culture that recognizes, encourages, publishes, discusses, and preserves literature. It requires institutions capable of distinguishing sustained literary achievement from local celebrity or organizational convenience. Most importantly, it requires a community that believes its writers are worth paying attention to before somebody from somewhere else tells them so.
Forty years is a long time to wait for a renaissance. I've published the books, edited the journals, organized the readings, encouraged younger writers, and tried to create some of the infrastructure I kept hoping would emerge organically. I still believe there are talented writers in Rockford. There always have been. But the existence of individual talent is not the same thing as the existence of a literary culture.
I would be delighted to be proven wrong. In fact, I've spent much of my adult life hoping to be proven wrong.
For now, though, the Rockford literary renaissance remains what it was when I first wrote this introduction: something I wanted badly enough to imagine I could already see it happening.
