January 14, 2021

Natalie Diaz, Nikky Finney, and Tracy K. Smith Named Academy of American Poets Chancellors in History Making Election

The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that Natalie Diaz, Nikky Finney, and Tracy K. Smith have been elected to its Board of Chancellors, filling the seats vacated by Elizabeth Alexander, Linda Gregerson, and Alicia Ostriker, whose six-year terms of active service have concluded. The three poets will consult with the Academy on matters of artistic programming, serve as judges for the organization’s largest legacy prizes for poets, and act as ambassadors of poetry in the world at large.

Poems by Academy Chancellors

Get to know the esteemed poets serving on the Board of Chancellors by reading their work on Poets.org:

“The Morning After” by Ellen Bass
“Peony” by Marilyn Chin
“Purple” by Kwame Dawes
“They Don't Love You Like I Love You” by Natalie Diaz
“Heirloom” by Nikky Finney
“Elegy for the Disappeared” by Forrest Gander
“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo
“We Should Make a Documentary About Spades” by Terrance Hayes
“On a Day, In the World” by Brenda Hillman
“After the Movie” by Marie Howe
“Before Dawn” by David St. John
“Only as the Day Is Long” by Dorianne Laux
“Einstein’s Mother” by Tracy K. Smith
“Pilgrimage” by Natasha Trethewey
“Ditty” by Kevin Young

Watch Kayssie K. read Meriem Ahmed’s poem “Floral Birth ‘98,” as part of Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation’s Read By series of poetry films.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: A Reading Hosted by Rain Taxi

Don’t miss our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: a free, virtual reading and discussion featuring former Academy Chancellor Toi Derricotte and Dawn Lundy Martin, hosted by Rain Taxi. Tonight at 5:30 p.m. CST, 6:30 p.m. EST. Free with registration.

2021 Poets Laureate Fellowships

Submissions are being accepted for the 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships. The $50,000 fellowships will honor Poets Laureate of states, cities, counties, U.S. territories, or Tribal nations, enabling them to undertake impactful and innovative projects that will engage their fellow residents and address important issues with poetry. The fellowship program, made possible by a generous gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is now in its third year.

Awards for Books in Translation

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.

Opportunities for Poets

The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is currently accepting application for its Post Doctoral Associate/Fellowship in Creative Writing. Application deadline is January 31, 2021.
Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, is seeking a full-time Writing Instructor and Faculty Associate in the Writing Program.
HarperCollins Publishers in New York City is seeking an Editorial Assistant to provide administrative and editorial support to the Vice President Associate Publisher and Associate Director of Publishing at Harper Perennial.

Fatimah Asghar Recommends a Poem from Poets.org

“‘Real Estate’ by Richard Siken. That poem is so incredible, and hit on a very emotional level for me. My parents died when I was really really young, and I have a very complicated idea of family. A lot of the people who raised me are not blood, and there was so much of that in the poem, the complications of family, the complications of death, and then, the end that bolts into really reckoning with death, which will reckon with me. The craft, the emotionality of it… it’s a poem that has really stuck with me.”

—Fatimah Asghar, author of If They Come For Us (One World/ Random House, 2018), and Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for the month of January.

Last Week’s Poem-a-Day

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

January 3: “A January Dandelion” by George Marion McClellan
January 4: “The New Decade” by Hieu Minh Nguyen
January 5: “Take Wing Tempo” by Ladan Osman
January 6: “on holding rose water” by beyza ozer
January 7: “Ode to Sudanese-Americans” by Safia Elhillo
January 8: “Object Permanence” by Hala Alyan
January 9: “My Song” by Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr.

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Natalie Diaz, Nikky Finney, and Tracy K. Smith Named Academy of American Poets Chancellors, Poems by the Board of Chancellors, and more

Natalie Diaz, Nikky Finney, and Tracy K. Smith Named Academy of American Poets Chancellors in History Making Election

Poems by Academy Chancellors

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: A Reading Hosted by Rain Taxi

2021 Poets Laureate Fellowships

Awards for Books in Translation

Opportunities for Poets

Fatimah Asghar Recommends a Poem from Poets.org

Last Week’s Poem-a-Day

Older messages

"poem where no one is deported" by José Olivarez

"Undoing" by Khadijah Queen

"Silence" by Babette Deutsch

"My Song" by Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr.

"Object Permanence" by Hala Alyan

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