April is National Poetry Month

This April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives.

While we celebrate poets and poetry year-round, the Academy of American Poets was inspired by the successful celebrations of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March), and founded National Poetry Month in April 1996 with an aim to:

highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets,
encourage the reading of poems,
assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms,
increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media,
encourage increased publication and distribution of poetry books, and
encourage support for poets and poetry.

To learn more about National Poetry Month: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home