Meet the Director

Eileen D’Angelo and the Mad Poets are everywhere, turning up the volume and fueling poetry unceasingly.  Without them, the region would be sadder and way too quiet.    ~Barb Daniels

Eileen M. D’Angelo, MPS Executive Director

Eileen M. D’Angelo is the Founder and Executive Director of the Mad Poets Society (since 1987), and Founder and Managing Editor of the literary magazine, Mad Poets Review (since 1990). Since 1987, she has produced over 1,500 special events, including poetry performances, slams and readings, conferences, workshops, bonfires and literary festivals in the Delaware Valley.  D’Angelo judged open auditions in Philadelphia for the pilot program of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam; and in July of 2018, she was the subject of a Tribute by Philadelphia’s Moonstone Arts Center.   

Twice nominated for a Pennsylvania Governor’s Award in the Arts, D’Angelo received two Pushcart Prize / Best of the Small Press nominations from Verse Magazine and Schuylkill Valley Journal.  Her poetry, essays and book reviews have been published. or are forthcoming in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the News of Delaware County, Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century, Manhattan Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Drexel Online Journal, Wild River Review, Philadelphia Stories, Philadelphia Poets, The Independent Review, Negative Capability, One Trick Pony, Midwest Poetry Review, Odessa Poetry Journal, The Aurealean, Bitterroot, Bookends, and others.    

A former six-term President of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, Inc., and former Secretary of the Board of Directors for Musehouse: A Literary Arts Center in Chestnut Hill, D’Angelo has conducted workshops and performed original songs and poetry on WXPN’s World Café Live, at the Painted Bride Art Center, at the Philadelphia Art Museum, at South St. Arts Festival, the Walt Whitman Cultural Center in Camden, NJ, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Rutgers University,  Rosemont College, Hedgerow Theatre, Main Street Theatre in Quakertown, the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Conference in Harrisburg, the Montgomery County Writers Conference, the Delaware County Women’s Conference, and the North Wildwood Writers’ Conference and the Philly Fringe Festival (with Wild Women, a women’s poetry performance group she founded in 1990), and other venues.  She was a reader/presenter at the 200th Celebration of Walt Whitman’s Birthday at Philadelphia City Hall; and a presenter at the 215 Festival for Philadelphia Magazine’s reading at the Tritone. She served as Judge of the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Competition along with Grace Paley and Terry Culleton.   

D’Angelo is the founder and coordinator of the Annual Young Poets Competition in Delaware County, which is sponsored by Mad Poets, with generous funding and assistance from The Delaware County Library System, the Keystone State Literacy Council, the Rose Tree Media Optimists, the PA Poetry Society, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Council and the PA Council on the Arts. The competition continues to recognize talented young students and has for the past 33 years. An advocate for domestic abuse awareness and the founder of Arts Against Abuse, D’Angelo has raised over $14,000.00 for Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County and other domestic abuse shelters in the Delaware Valley.  Through Arts Against Abuse,  D’Angelo collaborated with the Delaware County Artists Guild to present silent auctions and multi-media performing arts programs to raise money. She was the recipient of the 23rd Annual Victim Rights Award given by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office and the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County.  

Eileen D’Angelo has been the Paralegal to G. Guy Smith, Esq., for 35 years, specializing in criminal law, and is a Pennsylvania Notary Public. She is the Founder of the Delaware County Paralegal Association and former Vice President of the Keystone Alliance of Paralegal Associations. In addition, D’Angelo was recipient of the 2017 Paralegal of the Year Award given by Board of Directors of the Delaware County Community College’s Paralegal Studies Advisory Program; and she now currently serves as Secretary of that Board of Directors (having been nominated to the board by the Honorable Judge Barry Dozor, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas).