Poems for Native American Heritage Month, Book Recommendations from Angelo Geter, Inaugural Poem Contest for Students

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week:
“To Enter the World”

Don’t miss our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: “To enter the world,” a virtual reading and conversation featuring Stephanie Burt, author of Advice From the Lights (Graywolf Press, 2017), and Taylor Johnson, author of Inheritance (Alice James Books, 2020). Hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library, it will take place on Thursday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m. EST. Learn more and register here. 

Book Recommendations from Angelo Geter, Poet Laureate of Rock Hill, South Carolina

Angelo Geter, a poet and performance artist also known in the spoken word world as “EyeAmBic,” is a National Poetry Slam champion. Read about Geter’s Poets Laureate Fellowship project here. Angelo Geter is currently reading Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts and The Birth of All Things by Marcus Amaker. 

“Felon is a daring and unapologetic commentary on the criminal justice system through gorgeously dark imagery. The blackout poems in particular, will make you appreciate what he allowed us to see just as much as what he didn’t. 

The Birth of All Things is a beautiful odyssey of carefully crafted poems that examine social justice, depression, and music through the lens of black fatherhood. It’s a unique and refreshing perspective.”

Inaugural Poem Contest for Students

Award-winning poet Richard Blanco will judge our new Inaugural Poem Contest for Students! Submissions will be open from November 30 to December 30; the winners will be announced in January 2021 and receive cash prizes. Students 18 or under are eligible.

Songs at the Confluence: Indigenous Poets on Place

Spanish Manuscript and Translation Prizes

The Academy of American Poets is accepting submissions for the Ambroggio Prize, given to a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation; the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, recognizing a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in the previous calendar year; and the Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship, given for the translation into English of a significant work of modern Italian poetry. Submissions are open through February 15, 2021.

Heid E. Erdrich on Looking at Her Recent Book

 “With this book, I feel fallen through time and dimensions. I guess we are all there now, this place we knew was out there, this place so many of us come from that we hoped would not come again. So that’s the work and it’s in my teaching and writing life. My breathing and loving life. In our lives.”

—Heid E. Erdrich, author of Little Big Bully (Penguin Editions, 2020), and Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for the month of November.