In the early 1970s, Van K. Brock created The Poetry-Arts Co-operative at FSU, and began to stage readings featuring local poets and nationally known writers, These readings continue today, In the same period, Van founded The Anhinga Press as a means of showcasing the ferment of poetic activity in the Big Bend area. The press published anthologies of prison poets and poetry from the public schools in Leon County, and, in 1975, an anthology of local poets, A Café at St. Marks. In 1977, the first four books by individual poets were issued.  In the 1990s, Van founded and edited a sumptuous literary journal, International Quarterly, devoted to the varieties of writing on our blue planet, and to its many endangered human races. Van’s own poetry is marked by a rare combination of lyric gift and rigorous intellect. A consistent theme in his work is the spirit of place and our intimate connection to the landscapes we inhabit. Van’s published books include Lightered: New and Selected Poems, Unspeakable Strangers, and the  The Hard Essential Landscape,