Just Buffalo was founded in 1975 by Debora Ott. Following the success of a poetry reading she had organized by poet Diane DiPrima, Debora approached the Allentown Community Center about starting a regular reading series. Before long, writing workshops for adults and children, a literary magazine and a radio show were added to the mix of activities and services provided to the community.

Writers and literary artists presented by Just Buffalo over the years represent a Who’s Who among contemporary writers. Winners of every literary honor in America – from the Nobel Prize for Literature to the Pulitzer Prize to the National Book Award to the Poet Laureate of the United States – have read here.

In 1982, Just Buffalo expanded by formally establishing its now renowned Writers in Education program, focused on providing school- and community-based writing arts programs for young people. Encouraged by national and regional government funders to become a non-profit, Just Buffalo incorporated in 1989 and legally separated from the Allentown Community Center in 1990 to diversify its funding base.

After leaving the Elmwood location, Just Buffalo moved first to 493 Franklin Street, and then to the Tri-Main Center at 2495 Main Street, where it remained for 10 years. In 2005, Just Buffalo returned downtown to join CEPA Gallery and Big Orbit at the Market Arcade to pursue a first-of-its kind Administrative Collaboration which includes shared office space. The generous support of private citizens, local and national foundations, and area corporations has been a primary contributing factor to the growth of the organization.

Debora Ott left Just Buffalo in 1997, having grown it into one of the 10 largest literary centers in the country. Laurie Dean Torrell became Executive Director in 2002, joining Artistic Director Mike Kelleher, the staff, and board in leading the organization into the next phase of its life.

Just Buffalo continues to grow, having over the past several years instituted many new programs, including Babel International author series in 2007, World of Voices collaboration with White Pine Press, If All of Buffalo Read the Same Book, and the Buffalo/Williamsville Poetry, Music, Dance Celebration. These programs bring writing and writers into the community throughout the year, creating a civic dialogue centered on literature that would not exist otherwise.

Just Buffalo has been recognized as a unique cultural treasure, honored with many of the most significant awards in the field, including designation as a Primary Institution by New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York State Governor’s Arts Award. Beneficiaries of our work include 70,000+ community members served through readings, workshops, publications and events, and more than 3,500 students served through Writers in Education programs. Programs take place throughout WNY.

As a leading literary center in the nation, and a regional cultural asset, Just Buffalo has successfully secured competitive federal, state, and private grants to bring dynamic programs to Western New York – in the process leveraging substantial grant funds from outside the area to be spent here in this community.

The organization provides leadership and fiscal agency for two NYSCA state-wide projects: New York State Literary Technical Assistance Program (LitTAP – see www.littap.org) including organizing state-wide annual conference Facing Pages; and New York State Writers in the Schools Project to increase access to these programs statewide particularly in underserved areas.

In addition to literary programming, Just Buffalo is the only provider of comprehensive writing arts programs in the 8 counties of Western New York. Just Buffalo has established itself as a regional resource and a national model, both for the excellence of its artistic programming and for the thoughtful, strategic ways it has approached administration and operations.

Just Buffalo Literary Center’s mission is to create and strengthen communities through the literary arts.

Each community has its own values, its own aspirations, and its own needs. No two communities are alike in every way. We use the plural form of the word ‘community’ because we recognize that vast differences exist between communities in our culture and we believe that creating community means building commonalities among community members. It does not mean forcing individuals of one community to accepts the values or standards of another.

Literary arts make themselves of language, and in language lies the foundation of every community: communication. Notice how similar the words sound. Our commitment to the literary arts is an active one. We do not believe that literature makes communities in and of itself, but we do believe that the practice, teaching, discussion, presentation, and appreciation of literature has the potential to create networks of communication that had not previously existed and to strengthen those networks that already do exist.

At Just Buffalo, our longest standing commitment has been to the community of writers who practice the literary arts. We support writers by providing venues in which they can present, discuss, publish, and improve their work. When possible we support writers financially by paying honoraria for readings or by paying them to serve as teaching artists through our writers in Education program.

We also support the community of readers. Once a poem or a book gets read, its ideas come to form part of the larger conversation of the city. By presenting quality contemporary literature to the community of readers in Buffalo, we hope to broaden not only the perspectives of individual readers but also the scope of possible conversations within the community at large. Our largest program, If All Of Buffalo Read The Same Book, attempts to create a citywide community of readers in conversation about a single book.

Through our Writers in Education program, Just Buffalo brings the literary arts into schools, building literary communities, of teachers, of teaching artists, and of students. By involving professional teaching writers with students and teachers in the public schools, Just Buffalo hopes to educate these communities in the practice and use of language. Contact with real writers and with real literature in a meaningful context makes the educational community stronger.

Finally, our commitment to the diverse ethnic communities demands that we program with an eye toward strengthening ties among the various populations of the city. Through programs such as our interdisciplinary program, which combines literature with other arts, such as dance, puppetry or jazz, Just Buffalo brings high quality programming into some of the most deserving and underserved communities in the area.

Communities are created through communication. Just Buffalo remains steadfastly committed to both.