April 25, 2023

Join Us for Poetry & the Creative Mind

Poetry & the Creative Mind, our signature National Poetry Month celebration and benefit reading, will return to the virtual stage as a free, live-streamed event tomorrow, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

With readings of favorite poems by luminaries from across the arts and culture, the broadcast celebrates the important role poetry plays in the lives of readers. Join Ethan Hawke, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, John Lithgow, Shantell Martin, Liam Neeson, Molly Shannon, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai, and others, for this singular virtual event hosted by Masters of Ceremony Richard Blanco and Kimiko Hahn.

learn more & register free

Registration is free for all attendees. Your gift during registration supports the Academy of American Poets’ programs and publications, including free resources for educators during National Poetry Month and throughout the year.

Arbor Day

In honor of Arbor Day on April 28, read a selection of poems inspired by the majesty of trees from our archive:

“A Tree Design” by Arna Bontemps
“Pear Tree” by H. D.
“White Trees” by Nathalie Handal
“Speaking Tree” by Joy Harjo
“Loveliest of Trees” by A. E. Housman
“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer
“Letter from Town: The Almond Tree” by D. H. Lawrence
“Arbolé, Arbolé . . .” by Federico García Lorca
“Like a Strong Tree” by Claude McKay
“The Praying Tree” by Melinda Palacio
“To the Pine Tree” by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, translated by Margaret Noodin

“Because poetry provides this space and allows people to connect in ways that go beyond the mundane, transcending time and space to reach into the deeply personal while honoring individuality and respecting alternate beliefs and perspectives, it is an ideal tool for bringing people together.”

Read an interview with Rena Priest, 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow, on her project in Washington State. Read more about Priest, including poems, on Poets.org:

“(A Poem Is a) Naming Ceremony”
“The Index”
“The Forest for the Trees”

more at poets.org

Sponsored Content

World Literature Today is your passport to great reading about literature, art, culture, and so much more from all over the world. Subscribe today (Coupon Code: FreeWLT) and you’ll get an additional digital subscription to gift to whomever you like!

We are pleased to announce the 2023 winners of the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize, which honors exceptional poems that help readers recognize the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment. The winners were selected by climate scientist and author Dr. Peter Kalmus and poet Matthew Olzmann. The winning poems and poets are: “Lullaby” by John James (published in Poem-a-Day on Earth Day, April 22, 2023); “Playing with Bees” by RK Fauth (to be published in Poem-a-Day on April 29, 2023); and “Though from Here I Can’t Smell the Smoke” by Allison Hutchcraft (to be published in Poem-a-Day on May 6, 2023).

This annual prize was launched in 2019 with generous support from Treehouse Investments, LLC.

more at poets.org

Congratulations to this month’s Guest Editor, Ada Limón, who has been appointed to a historic two-year second term as U.S. Poet Laureate. Limón is the author of several books, including The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2022) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), finalist for the National Book Award. Read and listen to a Q&A with Limón about her Poem-a-Day curatorial approach, and enjoy a selection of poems from The Hurting Kind on Poets.org:

“It Begins With the Trees”
“Drowning Creek”
“When It Comes Down To It”

more at poets.org

Poetry & Grief

In honor of the Poetry Coalition’s seventh annual programming intitiave, “and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson: Poetry & Grief,” read more poems and essays reflecting on grief, mourning, and loss.

Replay Available

Watch the 2023 Blaney Lecture, “The Scrawny Little Black Girl with the Hasty Pigtails Sounds Out ‘Anemone,’” delivered by Academy Chancellor Patricia Smith.

Read the full transcript of the lecture, here at Poets.org, along with past presentations of the annual Blaney Lecture.

The Blaney Lecture on contemporary poetry and poetics was created in memory of former Academy of American Poets Board member Dr. Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, past president of Cedar Crest College and champion of women and education, by a gift from her estate.

more at poets.org

It’s the last week of #NationalPoetryMonth, an occasion established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 to celebrate the integral role that poets and poetry have in our culture. Visit Poets.org/npm for free activities, programs, and resources to celebrate with us throughout April and beyond!

more at poets.org

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Celebrate the annual Poem in Your Pocket Day this Thursday, April 27, by carrying poems to share with others throughout the day. Learn more about how to participate in schools, bookstores, libraries, public spaces, and on social media (#PocketPoem).

more at poets.org

Upcoming Deadlines

Publishers and presses, submissions will close on May 15 to the 2023 James Laughlin Award, given to a second book of poetry forthcoming in 2024, and the 2023 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, given to the most outstanding book of poetry published in 2023.

more at poets.org

The Drift magazine in New York City is seeking a part-time fiction assistant.
University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, is accepting applications for the Nossrat Yassini Poet in Residence.
Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis is seeking a full-time senior publicist. Apply by May 8, 2023.
826 Valencia is seeking a full-time communications coordinator. Apply by April 27, 2023.

Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

April 16: from “Khamriyyah” by Ibn al-Fāriḍ
April 17: “Anthropocenic” by Jake Skeets
April 18: “Poem for a Suicide” by Matthew Zapruder
April 19: “The Head of the Cottonmouth” by Roger Reeves
April 20: “Eating the Moon in Cotulla, TX” by Analicia Sotelo
April 21: “let grow more winter fat / wine-cup / western wild rose” by Camille T. Dungy
April 22: “Lullaby” by John James