The New York School was an informal group of American poets and painters active in 1950s New York City. Critics argued that their work was a reaction to the Confessionalist movement in contemporary poetry. Their poetic subject matter was often light, violent, or observational, while their writing style was often described as cosmopolitan and world-traveled. The poets often drew inspiration from Surrealism and the contemporary avant-garde art movement, in particular the action painting of their friends in the New York City art circle.

Poets most often associated with this group are John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, Alice Notley , Barbara Guest, Kenward Elmslie and James Schuyler. Painters most often associated with the group are Jane Freilicher , Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, Joe Brainard and to a lesser extent Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. There are also commonalities between the New York School and the earlier Beat Generation poets active in 1940s and 1950s New York City.

Books

• The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, Donald Merriam Allen, 1969
• An Anthology of New York Poets, Ron Padgett (ed.) and David Shapiro (ed.), 1970
• Frank O'Hara: Poet Among Painters, Marjorie Perloff, 1977
• The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets, David Lehman, 1998