Poem-a-Day - "You can’t hear me, but I’m there."

In celebration of the Academy’s ninetieth anniversary and Women’s History Month, we share this photograph from our archives of former Chancellor May Swenson, courtesy of her literary estate.

Announcing Meg Day as the 2024 Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence

We are pleased to announce, in collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, that Meg Day has been selected as the Poet-in-Residence for 2024. The residency, now in its third year, builds upon the institution’s legacy of engaging forms of abstraction in the visual arts and beyond, as well as its history with poetry events, and continues the Guggenheim’s commitment to amplifying diverse voices and perspectives within its programming. In their new role, Day will present All Ears, a project that will highlight Deaf poetry as visual art.

Read more about Day and enjoy a selection of their poems on Poets.org:

“Portrait of My Gender as [Inaudible]”
“Vespers”
“10 AM is When You Come to Me”
“Once All the Hounds Had Been Called Home”

“Finding a way to teach, to inspire others, to press the pencil down hard as they write a poem so as to leave an impression on things they were not intending to impress.”

—Read an essay by Joaquín Zihuatanejo, 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow and poet laureate of Dallas, Texas. Read a selection of Zihuatanejo’s poems on Poets.org: 

“The Lengths”
“Abuelo’s Garden”
“102”

Next Week: “Making the Invisible Visible: Some Thoughts on Poetry & Science”

Join us on Tuesday, March 19, at 4:30 p.m. PDT / 7:30 p.m. EDT (online) for the 2024 Blaney Lecture: “Making the Invisible Visible: Some Thoughts on Poetry & Science” delivered by Jane Hirshfield, former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. 

Hirshfield writes, “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.