Poem-a-Day - Poems for Spring and more

“We were the first Montana poets laureate who asked to share the position. Our intention was to serve as an example of people working together, creatively and collaboratively, across generations and cultures, toward common goals.”

—Read this interview with 2021 Poets Laureate Fellows Melissa Kwasny and M.L. Smoker on their work together in Montana. 

“The power of [...] any voice [...] depends on the power of the word. Without the word, we cannot know who we are, nor can we know one another. Conviction in this truth runs deep at Mellon and spurs us to augment the power of the word by supporting writers, poets, and creative language traditions in myriad genres and communities. We are leaders in funding the literary arts with determined intention. We are proud to partner with the Academy of American Poets, the National Book Foundation, and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses to support small presses and literary organizations through the renewal of the Literary Arts Emergency Fund.”

—Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in her annual President's Letter

We’re grateful to the Mellon Foundation for centering the power of voice, and for its commitment to supporting and helping to sustain the literary arts. We’ll be announcing the recipients of the second round of grants, totaling $4.3 million, through the renewed Literary Arts Emergency Fund in the coming weeks.

Read Alexander’s full President’s Letter here. 

This Friday, March 25, at 1:45 p.m. ET, don’t miss our offering for the 2022 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference & Bookfair: a special reading featuring Meg Day, Arthur Sze, and Kemi Alabi. This virtual event will be available on the AWP virtual conference platform, in addition to being screened on-site at the conference in Philadelphia in the Michael A. Nutter Theater (Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level). ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided. To attend this or any other AWP events, either virtually or in person, guests will need to purchase a conference registration in advance. 

Click here for a list of all AWP events featuring Academy of American Poets Chancellors and prize winners, Poem-a-Day guest editors, and Poetry Coalition member organizations. 

“Being editor of Poem-a-Day during National Poetry Month is better than a lifetime dream come true. It’s been my continual joy to share poems with other people—hopefully, poems that might move or transport them—so, doing it with this wide audience, at this moment in history, feels especially touching.”

—Naomi Shihab Nye, Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for National Poetry Month. Read more about Shihab Nye’s curation and sign up for Poem-a-Day to read along this April.  
 

Join M. Bartley Seigel, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula poet laureate and 2021 poet laureate fellow, in conversation with United States Poet Laureate and Academy Chancellor, Joy Harjo. Harjo will read from An American Sunrise. This virtual event is sponsored by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University. Monday, March 28, at 7:30-8:30pm ET. Free with registration.