National Poetry Month News and Introducing the 2015 Walt Whitman Winner

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 1, 2015 Welcome to National Poetry Month   Thank you for celebrating poetry and the important place it occupies in our culture in April and all year long. As Chancellor Jane Hirshfield writes, “A poem makes clear without making simple. Poetry’s language carries what lives outside language.” We need the clarity poets provide. Here’s to a new year of poetry!

Congratulations to Our New Walt Whitman Winner   Sjohnna McCray has been selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith to receive the 2015 Walt Whitman Award. McCray’s book, Rapture, will be published by Graywolf Press, and he will receive a six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center.  Photo credit: Aaron Mervin Read This Poem on Poets.org   We’ve teamed up with 826 National, a youth writing organization, to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters: Ann Arbor/Detroit, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Poets in each city will pick poems by local poets to celebrate. The poems will be revealed on Poets.org each Wednesday this month.             Dear Poet Project   For National Poetry Month, we’re inviting students in grades five through twelve to participate in the Dear Poet project by watching readings by and writing letters to our Chancellors. All letters received by April 30 will be considered for posting on Poets.org. And, teachers, we’ve created a companion lesson plan just for you.       Find Events around the Country   We’ve relaunched our poetry calendar of events on Poets.org. Visit Poetry Near You and enter your zip code to find poetry events and related listings in your area. And be sure to submit your own poetry events! Poem in Your Pocket Day: April 30   Take a look at the downloadable PDF of poems we created to help you celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day this April 30. Select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others throughout the day. And if you’re spreading the word about your plans, be sure to use the hashtag #pocketpoem. Use the Official National Poetry Month Hashtag   Follow National Poetry Month celebrations nationwide on Twitter by using #npm15! Visit the Poets Shop for our curated collection of jewelry, notebooks, totes, and more. Read "30 Ways to Celebrate" and join us in the festivities this month. Celebrate National Poetry Month by signing up to receive Poem-a-Day. Thanks to Our Sponsors   We’d like to extend our gratitude to all of the publishers and organizations that helped make National Poetry Month 2015 possible, including 826 National, Alfred A. Knopf, American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, Columbia University School of the Arts, Consortium, Copper Canyon Press, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Graywolf Press, Hamline University, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Marsh Hawk Press, National Council of Teachers of English, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, W. W. Norton, Papyrus, Penguin Books, Poetry Foundation, Random House Children’s Books, Scholastic, and others. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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