Poem-a-Day - "How would you have us, as we are?"

“I am Black, Woman, and Poet—fact, and outside the realm of choice. I can choose only to be or not be, and in various combinations of myself. And as my breath is a part of my breathing, my eyes of my seeing, all that I am is of who I am, is of what I do. The shortest statement of philosophy I have is my living, or the word ‘I.’”

In December 1970, the Academy of American Poets invited Audre Lorde to spearhead a series of readings and workshops for young adults in collaboration with the New York Public Library’s Bloomingdale Library on the Upper West Side.

“As a former young adult librarian, it has always given me great pleasure to work with this age group,” Lorde wrote back.

As part of the Academy’s ninetieth anniversary, we share a 1971 flyer advertising the program, with Lorde’s biographical note.

Read more about this archival document and browse more materials, as well as poems, essays, and videos in honor of Black History Month.

“It’s one thing to teach meter, but it’s another to teach a poet from whence their poetry is born, and why it is often created out of necessity.”

—Read an essay by Willie Perdomo, 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow and poet laureate of New York, on poetry and community. Read a selection of Perdomo’s poems on Poets.org: 

“Haikus”
“You Lose Something Every Day”
“That’s My Heart Right There”

“When I first began writing poetry, I was drawn in by poets who were very free and innovative with the structure and visual aspect of their work. I felt comforted by a sense of freedom and wildness. As I wrote more and began to look for my own voice, I returned gradually to tightness and restraint in form. In one sense, this is because restraint forces me to be purposeful with every character and allows me to feel in control of how I’m telling something.”

—Read our latest enjambments interview with Jordan Pérez on her debut poetry collection, Santa Tarantula, published this month by University of Notre Dame Press. Read a selection of poems from the collection on Poets.org: 

“Santa Tarantula”
“I Consider Violence”
“Knockout Rose”

2024 Poetry Fund Applications Open

In alliance with the Amazon Literary Partnership, the Academy of American Poets invites poetry organizations and presses to submit applications for grants from the Poetry Fund, which will be awarded in 2024. Grant applications are being accepted now through April 15. Learn more and apply.

Join us on Thursday, March 7, at 4:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 p.m. ET (online) for the 2024 Blaney Lecture: “Making the Invisible Visible: Poetry, Science, Perception-Increase, and Change” delivered by Jane Hirshfield, Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets.

Both poetry and science are tools for making visible what was always there to be seen. Both also create new ways of seeing, feeling, knowing, and living. Amid the crises, griefs, divisions, and losses of the current era, this talk explores a few examples of the ways in which expansions of saying and knowing are also expansions of what might be possible, thinkable, and doable.

This virtual event is free to attend with registration. Closed captioning will be provided. 

2024 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize & 2024 James Laughlin Award  

We are now accepting submissions from publishers for the 2024 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, which recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in 2023, and the 2024 James Laughlin Award, given to a second book of poetry forthcoming in 2025. Learn more here and apply by May 15, 2024 (11:59 p.m. ET). 

2024 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships

The Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships are $50,000 awards given to honor poets of literary merit appointed to serve in civic positions and to enable them to undertake meaningful, impactful, and innovative projects that engage their fellow residents, including youth, with poetry, helping to address issues important to their communities. We are accepting applications for the 2024 fellowships until April 8, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET.