The participating poets from both the United States and Greece were: Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Elana Bell, Yiorgos Chouliaras, Kathy Engel, Ross Gay, Panayotis Ioannidis, Robert Kocik, Patricia Kolaiti, Vassilis Manoussakis, Jamaika Osorio, Pat Rosal, Liana Sakelliou, Danai Sioziou and Samantha Thornhill.

Set out for Ithaca was a live and evolving installation created by Adonis Volanakis, a Fulbright visiting artist in New York University/ Arts and Politics Department. He has invited seven Greek and seven American contemporary poets to convene in Ithaca, Greece, to create an artwork that stimulates dialogue and interaction between Ithaca residents -who hostedand created a human hotel for the writers- and the summer visitors. The visiting poets encouraged local residents to participate in workshops, experience an alternative poetic sightseeing tour of the city and shared poetry in situ. In exchange, citizens hosted a participating poet and provided her/him with a unique insight of the island and offer the distinct experience of philoxenia/ hospitality. Designed to simulate a blind double date, between the poets, between poets and residents, all participants contributed to discussions, workshops and readings. In June 2013, these artists came together to explore the importance of poetry as a way to forge social relations and foster possible urban strategies for change. Set out for Ithaca was a socially engaged intervention that promoted the sharing of cross-cultural poetry to create platforms for community-based discussion and creative collective imagining.
In the Set out for Ithaca environment everybody became a poet, exploring the language to embrace an open dialogue with the island, re-launching poetry as a vital way to connect us.