Michael Peich founded the West Chester University Poetry Center (2000) to promote poetry, criticism, and the musical and visual arts at West Chester University. The Center presents the annual West Chester University Poetry Conference, sponsors the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards, supports the poet-in-residence program, hosts an annual poetry reading series, and organizes critical lectures, seminars in contemporary poetics, and training for public-school educators. The Center houses Aralia Press. The National Endowment for the Humanities recognized the excellence of the Center's programming and awarded it a $300,000 Challenge Grant (2002).

Professor Peich co-founded the WCU Poetry Conference (1995), the largest annual poetry conference in the United States. The subject of numerous essays and reviews, the conference is recognized for its innovative approaches to teaching traditional form and narrative in poetry, for fostering a critical forum for poets and critics, and for supporting traditional art song.

Aralia Press was created by Professor Peich (1983) to publish contemporary poetry in finely printed editions, using the traditional methods of book production. The press has issued over seventy titles by notable and emerging poets. The recipient of design awards, including the AIGA Fifty Books of the Year designation, Aralia has been the subject of several single press exhibits, and numerous reviews, essays, and a National Public Television program.

Peich is Professor of English at West Chester University. His essays on fine printing, contemporary poetry, and printing history have appeared in The Hudson Review, Verse, The Journal of American Printing History, Pacific Review, The Dark Horse, and the University of Michigan Under Discussion series. The author of three books, he reviews poetry and baseball history for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and lectures regularly on fine printing and contemporary poetry.

Jamie Smith received her B. A. in English Literature from West Chester University (2002). Following her graduation, she worked in the Marketing Department for a local medical manufacturer. After volunteering at the conference for six years she joined the WCU Poetry Center as the Administrative Assistant in December 2006. She currently serves as Associate Director of the WCU Poetry Conference, and is the administrative director of all the Center's programs.