Academy Prepares for National Poetry Month

The Academy of American Poets launches on Wednesday the fourteenth annual National Poetry Month, a thirty-day celebration of poetry in American culture. Throughout April, the organization will sponsor events in New York City and initiate poetry-sharing programs nationwide.

The month kicks off with the Poetry and the Creative Mind gala at Lincoln Center in New York City, featuring readings by writers such as Jorie Graham, Mark Strand, and Zadie Smith, as well as by performing artists such as Joan Baez, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Wynton Marsalis.

Through April 15, the Academy is inviting readers to transcribe a line of poetry in an environment that "invites that line's undoing" and submit photographs of the ephemeral poetry to the organization for possible inclusion on the Academy Web site. Submissions to the Free Verse Project are also entered in a contest to win a copy of Poem in Your Pocket, an anthology published by the Academy, and a piece of jewelry engraved with a selection from a poem.

On April 30, the Academy celebrates Poem in Your Pocket day, when readers are encouraged to carry poems to share with others throughout the day. A selection of print-ready portable poems is available on the Academy Web site. In celebration of the day, a reading from the Poem in Your Pocket anthology featuring Matthea Harvey, Ann Lauterbach, and Meghan O'Rourke, among others, will be held at the Strand Bookstore in New York City.

Readings and programs happening nationwide during April are listed on the Academy Web site, which features a state-by-state map of events. Also available on the Web site are ideas for how to celebrate the month in your community and a list of newly released books of poetry. Visitors to the site can also sign up for the Poem-A-Day service, which will send each day via e-mail a new poem from a collection published this spring.