Poem-a-Day - "Look on me and be renewed"

“I thrive in the turn a poem can take, for the beautiful and the devastating, but that can also hold the whole cup—full and empty. How do you write the poem when the words become buried in a landslide of fear, of dread, of stuckness, piled high on top, with breath a labored effort?” 

Read an essay by 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow Carla Rachel Sameth, co-poet laureate of Altadena, California, on how writing poetry helps to elevate mental well-being. Read more about Sameth, including poems: 

“Unspooled” 
“Love Letter to a Burning World” 

“Like archives, poems preserve. Unlike archives, poems, in preserving, also transform. As far as technologies of preservation go, maybe poems are more like pickles. Archives attempt to negate time. Pickles, on the other hand, use time as a crucial ingredient.” 

Read our enjambments interview with Armen Davoudian on his poetry collection The Palace of Forty Pillars, published this month by Tin House. Read more about Davoudian, and enjoy a selection of poems from the collection: 

“The Palace of Forty Pillars” 
“Swan Song” 
“Coming Out of the Shower” 
“The Yellow Swan” 

Join a community of readers from around the world for a one-of-a-kind, three-part course on Gwendolyn Brooks presented by Pulitzer winner and former Academy Chancellor Carl Phillips.

Phillips will explore Brooks’s evolution as a writer, mastery of English form, and stylistic virtuosity. Class meets from 2:30–3:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 16; Friday, April 26; and Friday, May 3, via Zoom.

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.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Join us for the launch of You Are Here, a new anthology of nature poems edited by Ada Limón and her signature project as the nation’s poet laureate. The evening features readings and a conversation with Academy Chancellors and anthology contributors Ilya Kaminsky, Patricia Smith, and Kevin Young. Monday, April 1, at 7 p.m. ET. In-person and live stream tickets available. (Sponsored)

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.