In 1933 Minnesota poets Robert Cary and Irl Morse began published
Poetry of Today, a column in the
St. Paul Pioneer Press with the goal of generating interest in a state poetry society. The effort was successful, and on February 10, 1934, a group of poets met at the Lowry Hotel in St. Paul and established the League of Minnesota Poets. By the end of the year, there were 74 members. The organization incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2014. In 1935 the society held the first non-member poetry contest and published the first collection of poetry from the membership, titled
Year Book. The group began publishing the quarterly
Moccasin bulletin with news and event information, but in 1936 this was converted into a literary poetry magazine, and the group inaugurated the
LOMPlighter newsletter to replace the bulletin. In 1982 the LMP ratified a proposal to name a
Poet Laureate with a five year term. According to a 2006 article in the
Mankato Free Press an effort was made by the
Mankato chapter of the League of Minnesota Poets to revive the custom of holding a local
Eisteddfod, a Welsh literary and cultural festival with adjudicated competitions for poets, writers, musicians, and others. The tradition, which had been brought to the Mankato area in the 1860s by early
Welsh-American pioneers, had fallen into abeyance during the 1950s. During the 2006 Cambria Eisteddfod, however, at the
Morgan Creek Vineyards in
New Ulm,
Brainerd poet Doris Stengel was awarded the
Bardic Chair by
Archdruid John Calvin Rezmerski. But, following Rezmerski's death in 2016, the custom of Eisteddfodau in Minnesota again fell into abeyance. ==Activities==