The Poetry Center at PCCC, founded in 1980 by award-winning poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan, has hosted thousands of poets over the years at its readings, workshops, and conferences. These include Poet Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Inaugural poets, and others of national and international reputation. Readings at the Center have included Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Stanley Kunitz, Ruth Stone, Marge Piercy, Billy Collins, Richard Blanco, Patricia Smith, and many others.  The Poetry Center is housed in the historic Hamilton Club Building on the campus of Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey.

The Center offers reading and workshops by distinguished poets, and publishes the Paterson Literary Review. It annually sponsors three literary contests and awards prizes for each: the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award (for a single poem), the Paterson Poetry Prize (for a book of poetry), and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People.