Literary Arts Emergency Fund Deadline Extended, Announcing the Student Winner of the 2022 National Poetry Month Poster Contest, and more

Deadline Extended: Literary Arts Emergency Fund 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, current Omicron surge, and related hardships for organizations nationally, the Literary Arts Emergency Fund will reopen its submission portal for a two-week extension from Wednesday, January 19, 2022 to Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at 6 p.m. EST. We warmly encourage all nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers who have not yet applied to please submit applications during this window. 
 

“Poetry has the unique ability, according to the philosopher Susanne Langer, to convey experiences not available to us through other means of communication, everyday language, or even other art forms. Langer argued that poetry uses non-discursive language to convey human experience; we can say things in poetry through image, lyric, sound, and language play that are simply not available to us in everyday speech.”

Read this interview with 2021 Poet Laureate Fellow, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, on her work in Houston.

The Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships are $50,000 awards given to honor poets of literary merit appointed to serve in civic positions. The awards 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, as well as create new work. We are accepting applications for the 2022 fellowships from December 6, 2021 until February 18, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Find out more here.  
 

The Academy of American Poets, the originator of National Poetry Month, now a worldwide celebration, is happy to announce that eleventh grader Lara Lazar from Yonkers, New York, has been named the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Month Poster Contest. Lazar’s artwork was selected by contest judges Rafael López and Nikki Grimes and features a line of poetry by Amanda Gorman. The Academy of American Poets will distribute 90,000+ free copies of the 2022 poster featuring Lazar’s artwork to libraries, schools, bookstores, homes, and community centers nationwide to help mark the occasion of National Poetry Month this April. Request your free copy of the 2022 poster here.