National Poetry Month was founded by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, and since then it has become the single largest literary celebration in the world. We’re proud to share the many ways CLMP Members are bringing readers and writers together around poems this month!
Apogee Journal
This April, Apogee Journal (on Twitter @ApogeeJournal, on Instagram @apogeelit) will celebrate National Poetry Month on Twitter and Instagram with daily writing prompts, readings of poetry from recent issues, a live reading featuring poets selected for the journal’s Broadside Series, and more.
Baobab Press
Baobab Press is the publishing arm of the Radiant Sundance Books and Music in Reno, Nevada, a shop that will be hosting its 22nd Annual National Poetry Month Reading Series in April 2021. All events in this reading series are scheduled to occur on Thursdays at 4 PM PT and are free to the public. Poet Jesse DeLong, whose debut collection The Amateur Scientist’s Notebook publishes in April from Baobab Press, will be reading on April 15 with poets Jason McCall and Peter Streckfus. Other featured poets will include Jimmy Santiago Baca, Michelle Aucoin Wait, Kathryn de Lancellotti, Melanie Perish, Ann Keniston, Courtney Cliften, Kate Fennimore, Krista Lukas, June Sylvester Saraceno, and Tom Meschery.
BOA Editions
During National Poetry Month, WXXI-FM will run periodic selections from the Best of Poetry Moments with BOA Editions. In addition, Writers & Books in Rochester, New York, is hosting a weekly online reading series called Tuesdays with BOA Editions, which will feature readings and conversations with BOA’s spring authors every Tuesday at 7:30 PM Eastern. BOA will also be launching the BOA Audiobook Series with its inaugural audiobook, I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World. Finally, throughout the month of April BOA is offering 20% off all collections of poetry and poetry-in-translation ordered through its website.
Book*hug Press
To celebrate National Poetry Month, Book*hug Press published a poetry-themed reading list in April and will feature brief excerpts from these collections on Instagram throughout the month.
Brink
To celebrate National Poetry Month, every Thursday in April Brink will host a poetry reading and conversation between Brink Poetry Editor Hannah Bonner and the poets featured in Brink’s inaugural issue. The readings will take place on Brink‘s Instagram and are scheduled as follows: Anais Duplan on April 1 at 7 PM ET; Cynthia Cruz on April 8 at 7 PM ET, Cynthia Cruz; Steven Leyva on April 15 at 7:30 PM ET, Julia Anna Morrison on April 22 at 7 PM ET; and Spencer Williams on April 29 at 7 PM ET.
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing
The April 2021 issue of Dark Matter: Women Witnessing features a prose poem by Margo Berdeshevsky, a collection of poetry curated by Melissa Kwasny, and prose by Deena Metzger, all addressing questions of knowing and unknowing.
The Dillydoun Review
The Dillydoun Review publishes prose and poetry five times a week in TDR Daily as well as in its monthly issues. In celebration of National Poetry Month, TDR Daily will support poets by featuring a poem each day in April, including weekends.
eMerge
This National Poetry Month, Gotahold Brewing in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, will be holding weekly Poetry Happy Hours to benefit the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH), home of the online literary magazine eMerge. The Poetry Happy Hours will feature Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg on April 1, Bill McCloud on April 8, Geoffrey Brock and Geffrey Davis on April 15, Annie Newcomer and Leslie-Ann Murray on April 22, and Kristin Hunt on April 29.
Get Fresh Books Publishing
In April, Get Fresh Books Publishing is hosting two virtual National Poetry Month Readings. The first, on April 15 at 7 PM ET, will feature Mercy Tullis-Bukhari, Keisha Gaye Anderson, Desiree C. Bailey, and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor. The second, on April 17 at 7 PM ET, will feature Darla Himeles, Grisel Y. Acosta, Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, and Iain Pollock.
Gival Press
Gival Press will be celebrating National Poetry Month with the April 2021 issue of its online journal, ArLiJo, which features an interview with poet Francisco Aragón and writing by poets Jacqueline Jules and Matthew Feeney.
The Poetry Society of America
In partnership with Greenpeace USA and as part of the Poetry Coalition’s 2021 program “It is burning./ It is dreaming./ It is waking up.: Poetry & Environmental Justice,” The Poetry Society of America is presenting a series of brief essays by contemporary poets—including Dan Chiasson, Allison Hedge Coke, Anaïs Duplan, and others—on a poem that has impacted their understanding of environmental justice.
Red Hen Press
This April Red Hen Press is hosting a reading and conversation series with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The first event, on April 7 at 4 PM PT, will feature Brynn Saito and David Mason discussing narrative forms and the ballad in poetry. In the second event, on April 28 at 4 PM PT, Victoria Chang and Afaa Weaver will talk about bending the rules of Formalism. Both events can be streamed live and viewed later via Red Hen Press’s YouTube page.
The Rumpus
Every day in April, The Rumpus will publish work from a different poet as part of an annual National Poetry Month poetry series. The Rumpus also shared a reading list of poetry collections recommended by its editors.
Pangyrus Literary Magazine
This National Poetry Month, join Pangyrus Literary Magazine for the launch of What Tells You Ripeness: Black Poets on Nature on April 22 at 7:30 PM ET. Guest editor Nikki Wallschlaeger and poetry editor Cheryl Clark Vermeulen present an incredible lineup of poets, including Danielle Legros Georges, Kelsey Marie Harris, M.L. Kejera, J. Stephen Whitney, and more.
The Paris Review
The Paris Review will celebrate National Poetry Month with a new anthology of interviews, Poets at Work. With an introduction by poetry editor Vijay Seshadri, the book collects fourteen interviews with poets representing several generations and a wide range of styles and schools. Online, The Paris Review will be releasing a new batch of Poets on Couches, videograms in which poets read and discuss beloved poems, and will continue to offer the TPR Daily Poem e-newsletter, featuring a poem unlocked from the archive every day.
Passager Books
Passager Books is hosting several virtual events during National Poetry Month, including a First Friday Poetry Reading at Ragged Edge on April 2, an Intergenerational Poetry Reading on April 25, and Sarah Yerkes’s 103rd Birthday Reading on April 30. In addition, Passager is releasing a special episode of its podcast Burning Bright featuring its prior contest winners. Finally, Passager is launching Pandepoemium, a new weekly series of erasure poems created from its Pandemic Diaries.
The Poetry Society of New York
The New York City Poetry Festival is scheduled to take place on Governor’s Island in July 2021, and during April the Poetry Society of New York will be accepting submissions for the festival and crowdfunding to help support the event. In addition, the Poetry Society of New York is hosting its Spring Gala virtually on April 23rd at 8 PM ET.
Regal House Publishing
During April, Regal House Publishing will be featuring its published poets reading from their poetry collections on as part of a virtual Reading Series. Regal House will also be offering a 15% discount on all its poetry collections for the month of April.
Slate Roof Press
For National Poetry Month, Slate Roof Press is hosting its very first online event, a reading by Slate Roof Broadside Prize winners Armen Davoudian and Jendi Reiter on April 12 at 7:30 PM ET. The reading will be followed by a craft talk featuring master printer Ed Rayher and artist J. Hyde Meissner, who will describe the process of creating the woodcuts and printing the broadsides.
Split This Rock
As part of the Poetry Coalition’s 2021 program “It is burning./ It is dreaming./ It is waking up.: Poetry & Environmental Justice,” Split This Rock is offering curated poems through its Poem of the Week series and celebrating three years of Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, published in March 2018
Tupelo Press
During National Poetry Month, Tupelo Press will be hosting several virtual events, including a celebration of Tupelo Quarterly; a free generative workshop with Jeffrey Levine; and the annual Tupelo Press Alumni Reading during on Friday, April 30, at 6:30 PM ET. Tupelo Press will also be launching a TikTok channel and is offering a 20% discount on Tupelo Press subscriptions throughout the month of April.
Washington Writers’ Publishing House
This National Poetry Month, the Global Humanities Institute is sponsoring a celebration of Washington Writers’ Publishing House Press’s recent book This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Join in on April 8th at 5:30 PM ET for a discussion featuring four poets from the anthology: Kateema Lee, David Lott, Robert Giron, and Christopher Ankney.
Zephyr Press
During April, Zephyr Press is launching its first-ever GoFundMe campaign to help defray the printing bill to reprint its classic, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, translated by Judith Hemschemeyer and edited and introduced by Roberta Reeder. On April 23, Zephyr Press is also cohosting a virtual reading with New Mexico State University featuring Kazakhstani poet Aigerim Tazhi and translator J. Kates.
