"Someone has to make it out alive, sang a grandfather"

November 1, 2023

Native American Heritage Month

“To See as Far as the Grandfather World” by Ray Young Bear
“No More Fire Here: A Sestina” by b: william bearhart
“Housing Conditions of One Hundred Fifty Chippewa Families” by Kimberly Blaeser
“Drifting” by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks
“Navajo Mountain” by Norla Chee
“Peace Path” by Heid E. Erdrich
“How to Write a Poem in a Time of War” by Joy Harjo
“Map” by Linda Hogan
“Tawkwaymenahnah” by Denise Lajimodiere
“Man Hesitates but Life Urges” by D’Arcy McNickle
“Changing Is Not Vanishing” by Carlos Montezuma
“My Hermitage” by Alexander Posey
“Dignity” by Too-qua-stee
“Becoming a Ghost” by Tanaya Winder

“Across the nation, across the globe, natives are working to revive, rebuild, and recover their languages within their own communities—this is not only the work I do, but it is also the work of several of the poets featured in this essay.”

—Natalie Diaz, “A Poetry Portfolio: Featuring Five of Our Country’s Finest Native Poets,” published in the fall-winter 2015 issue of American Poets, the biannual journal of the Academy of American Poets.

more at poets.org

“I’m also interested a lot in how contemporary poetry serves, for a lot of us, a lack that we feel of, say, spirituality or guidance or truth in our contemporary culture. And I think contemporary poetry is a way that we can kind of have to turn to, to replace those kinds of things that we’ve lost.”

Please join us in welcoming this month’s Poem-a-Day Guest Editor, Steve Bellin-Oka. Bellin-Oka is the author of Instructions for Seeing a Ghost (University of North Texas Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. A Tulsa Artist Fellow in poetry and translation, he is also a research fellow at the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. Read and listen to a Q&A with Bellin-Oka about his Poem-a-Day curatorial approach.

more at poets.org

“In a world that is so dominated by black-and-white thinking […] poetry is a place where we can imagine uncertainty; a space where we don’t need to know all the answers.”

—Farnaz Fatemi, 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow (Santa Cruz County, CA)

Read more about Fatemi and her fellowship project here.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

On Tuesday, November 7, at 7 p.m. ET, the Lannan Center will present “In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine,” a free reading featuring Academy of American Poets Chancellors Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky, along with Lyudmyla Khersonska and Boris Khersonsky. Moderated by Askold Melnyczuk. Copley Formal Lounge, Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20057. Learn more.

more at poets.org

Academy of American Poets Chancellors Reading

We want to thank Academy Chancellors Marilyn Chin, Nikky Finney, Marie Howe, Ed Roberson, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, and Natasha Trethewey, as well as members of the community, who joined us last Thursday for a poetry reading at The New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, in partnership with First Year Writing.

As Academy Executive Director Ricardo Maldonado shared, “That’s the project of literature: to never see ourselves alone because we find something of the world in each of us. We love the words because they give rise to a living discourse, because the invitation of poetry is a vector of our mutual struggles. Our nation needs the work of poets.”

We invite you to join us at one of our upcoming events.

more at poets.org

2024–25 NEA Big Read

Applications are now open for grants to support 2024–25 NEA Big Read projects. Grant recipients will host book discussions, writing workshops, and creative activities that celebrate unique aspects of their community, using as inspiration one of fifty available NEA Big Read books, including titles by Academy of American Poets Chancellors Natalie Diaz, Joy Harjo, and Ilya Kaminsky. The application deadline is January 10, 2024. Learn more.

Ambroggio Prize and Landon Translation Award

We are accepting submissions for the 2024 Ambroggio Prize, a $1,000 publication prize given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation, and the 2024 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, which is a $1,000 award that recognizes the work of a translator for a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in 2023. Submissions will be accepted through February 15, 2024.

more at poets.org

Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize

Established in 2019 with generous support from Treehouse Investments, the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize is given to honor exceptional poems that help readers recognize the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment. The prize will honor three poets. First place will receive $1,000; second place, $750; and third place, $500. Submissions are accepted from September 15, 2023, through November 15, 2023. The judges are poet Elizabeth Bradfield and climate scientist Kate Marvel, PhD.

more at poets.org

House of Books in Kent, Connecticut, is seeking a full-time marketing director. To apply, send a resume, cover letter, and three book recommendations to Benjamin Rybeck, House of Books’ General Manager, at ben@houseofbooksct.com.
University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, California, is seeking a full-time lecturer in the analytical writing program.
The Academy of American Poets in New York, New York, is seeking a full-time development & membership manager and a full-time director of development.
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is seeking a full-time fellowship director and full-time artist services manager. Apply by November 15, 2023.

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

October 22: “Tenebris” by Angelina Weld Grimké
October 23: “ER S/P GSW” by Paul Hlava Ceballos
October 24: “Grow” by Ruth Ellen Kocher
October 25: “An Erasure of Senate Bill 1698 (2)” by Moncho Alvarado
October 26: “Audience” by Maritza N. Estrada
October 27: “Matrilineage [umbilicus]” by Sarah Ghazal Ali
October 28: “In a Disused Graveyard” by Robert Frost