Poems for Memorial Day, the 2021–2022 Poetry Coalition Fellowships, and more

May 25, 2021

Poems for Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, we mourn the detriments of war with these poems from Poets.org:

“the sonnet-ballad” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“Alfonzo Prepares to Go Over the Top” by Rita Dove
“Day Beginning with Seeing the International Space Station and a Full Moon Over the Gulf of Mexico and All Its Invisible Fishes” by Jane Hirshfield
“Fracture” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
“Such Is the Story Made of Stubbornness and a Little Air” by Ilya Kaminsky
“Search Engine: Notes from the North Korean-Chinese-Russian Border” by Suji Kwock Kim
“A Brief History of Hostility” by Jamaal May
“My Heart like a Nation” by Philip Metres

Celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, we’ve curated this selection of poems, audio, videos, essays, books, and more from and about Asian American and Pacific Islander poets.

Poetry is Not a Luxury: Reading & Discussion with Janice Lobo Sapigao & Angelo Geter

Join us for Poetry is Not a Luxury at the inaugural Roxbury Poetry Festival, organized by 2020 Poets Laureate Fellow, Boston Poet Laureate, Porsha Olayiwola. Hosted by the Academy of American Poets, this virtual panel on civic spaces and championing youth poets brings together the Poet Laureate of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Angelo Geter, and the Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County, California, Janice Lobo Sapigao, who also received Poets Laureate Fellowships in 2020. Saturday, June 5, from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. EDT. Learn more and register here.

The 2021–2022 Poetry Coalition Fellowships

The Poetry Coalition, a network of 25+ poetry organizations coordinated by the Academy of American Poets, is pleased to announce the 2021–2022 Poetry Coalition Fellowships, which are paid fellowship positions for five individuals who will each assist a different Poetry Coalition organization for twenty hours per week over the course of a forty-week period. Applications will be accepted until July 6.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: The Green Room LIVE with Jericho Brown

Check out our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: The Green Room LIVE with Jericho Brown. Join The Merwin Conservancy as they host Jericho Brown, who will read from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019). Saturday, May 29th at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PST. Learn more about this free event here.

Join us on Tuesday, June 8, for the launch of Michael Kleber-Diggs’s Worldly Things, the 2021 winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. The event, co-presented by Milkweed Editions, the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, will feature Kleber-Diggs in conversation with former U.S. Poet Laureate and Academy Chancellor Tracy K. Smith. 7 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. CT. ASL interpretation provided. Free and open to the public. Register here.

Yayoi Kusama: Poetry Now, a Reading and Discussion of Yayoi Kusama’s Every Day I Pray for Love

Join the Academy of American Poets, David Zwirner Books, and McNally Jackson for Yayoi Kusama: Poetry Now, a reading and discussion of Yayoi Kusama’s Every Day I Pray for Love with Rachel Eliza Griffith, Lara Mimosa Montes, Stephanie Rosenthal, and Paul Tran. Wednesday, June 2 at 12 p.m. EDT. Register here.

Kundiman is currently seeking a full-time Programs & Communications Assistant, a part-time Development Assistant, and a part-time Communications Intern.
Library of America in New York City is seeking applications for its Diverse Voices Fellowship. The full-time, two-year fellowship is for an individual pursuing a career in publishing or the public humanities. To apply, send cover letter, resume, and a short statement of interest in publishing to Hilma Rosa at hrosa@loa.org.
Youth Speaks in San Francisco, California, is seeking a full-time Poet Mentor, a full-time Youth Speaks Executive Director, and a full-time Youth Speaks Director of Advancement.

Sumita Chakraborty On Curating Poem-a-Day

“I’ve been thinking so much about the ways that we’re consuming content right now. It’s all these short, very succinct bursts of information. But opening emails with columns in them kind of help you track a journey of understanding a thing, rather than trying to think about a thing over and over and over and over again, until you get to language where you’re like, oh yeah, I see now how we got to this place...”

—Sumita Chakraborty, author of Arrow (Alice James, 2020), and Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for the month of May.

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

May 16: “How Near to Fairyland” by Yone Noguchi
May 17: “The Waiting” by Jane Wong
May 18: “The Vault” by Andrés Cerpa
May 19: “Logically, I Know the Circus” by Paige Lewis
May 20: “Looking for the Beautiful Things” by Joy Priest
May 21: “Grace Among the Ferns” by Analicia Sotelo
May 22: “Kumulipo” Translated by Queen Liliʻuokalani

The Academy of American Poets

75 Maiden Lane

St #901

New York, NY 10038

Add us to your address book

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Poems for Memorial Day, the 2021–2022 Poetry Coalition Fellowships, and more