Although there had been several short-lived state poetry organizations in Wisconsin none were in existence when S. Louise Leighton of the editorial committee of American Poetry Magazine and a member of poetry associations in New York and Minnesota returned to Wisconsin, her native state, in 1947. Thanks to the encouragement of Clara Catherine Prince of Milwaukee, founder of the American Literary Association and editor of American Poetry Magazine, and the support of the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association she began work to form such a society in Wisconsin. Letters of intent were sent to 50 Wisconsin writers and a favorable response was received. In November 1949, a preliminary meeting was held, and on April 23, 1950 at a meeting at the Wisconsin Memorial Union in Madison, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets was organized and officers elected. The organization's stated purpose was “to be an organization of men and women who are interested in poetry, who write poetry, and (or) who are willing to work to make Wisconsin conscious of its own poets.”
Toward that end, in subsequent years the organization held annual and regional meetings at which members and speakers read their work, conducted poetry contests among school children, sponsored radio broadcasts concerning poetry over WHA, and issued a newsletter and several anthologies including Northern Spring, 1951; Poems Out of Wisconsin, 1961; Wisconsin Harvest, 1966; and Hawk and Whippoorwill Recalled.
