Poetry as Public Practice

Runs a structured fellowship program that supports the sustained development of Asian American writers through multi-year access to retreats, mentorship, and community-building opportunities. Fellows have collectively published over 460 works since 2004 and have been admitted to top MFA and doctoral programs.

Organizes an annual multi-day retreat that brings together nearly 300 Fellows and over 50 faculty members, featuring readings, writing circles, craft classes, and mentorship opportunities to support the development of AAPI writers. The program has expanded to include fiction writers and offers a multi-year participation model allowing Fellows to attend up to three retreats.

Conducts annual or time-bound creative projects such as the Postcard Poem Exchange (on themes like shelter and AAPI futures), action calendar commissions, and Poetry & Environmental Justice programming, often in collaboration with national networks like the Poetry Coalition.

Provides ongoing writing instruction through four-week workshops, one-day craft classes, and online courses focused on genres including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Offers scholarships for participation and includes specialized offerings such as Food Writing Intensive and Poetics of Disability Justice.

Hosts 30 to 40 readings, workshops, walking tours, open mics, and special events annually across multiple U.S. cities and internationally through a network of 10 regional groups. Events include faculty readings, memorial readings, debut author showcases, and collaborative projects such as the Poetry Coalition initiatives.

Runs a multilingual open mic series, Se Buscan Poetas, and other open mic events featuring guest poets and musicians from around the world in languages including Spanish, Galician, English, and American Sign Language.

Hosts special events such as memorial readings, anniversary celebrations, and collaborative group poems addressing social issues, including a reading for Hal Sirowitz, the Bowery Women & Friends Anniversary Reading, and a poetry response to the death of George Floyd.

Hosts the Nuyorican poetry slam series weekly on Monday evenings at the Bowery Poetry Club, including during the Nuyorican Poets Café's building renovation, at 308 Bowery in Manhattan.

Launched the "Poetry is Like Bread" project during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a poetry and food series across 8 NYC restaurants and a collaborative ghazal poem with international poets to provide cultural and emotional nourishment.

Develops and produces works by emerging poets for performance on stage and other media, including theatrical concert collaborations such as the world premiere of "Life Poem" by Bob Holman and the Mivos Quartet, and presents public performances of such works.

Produces and releases the “Poetry Is Bread” and “The Art of Spoken Word” podcasts, hosted by Bob Holman, which share poetry as a transformative and widely accessible art form and showcase live events at the Bowery Poetry Club.

The Academy promotes poetry appreciation nationally by inaugurating and leading National Poetry Month since 1996, establishing it as the largest literary celebration in the world and fostering widespread cultural participation in poetry reading and writing.

The Academy of American Poets funds poetry organizations, presses, and individual poets through multiple grant initiatives, including the Poetry Fund grant program, American Poets Prizes & Fellowships, and endowed awards. It awards over $1,000,000 annually to approximately 200 poets and supports first-book publication through the Walt Whitman Award.

The Academy hosts annual public programs including the Blaney Lecture on contemporary poetics, curated monthly poetry series by invited poets, and the free virtual benefit reading “Poetry & the Creative Mind,” which features actors, artists, and public figures supporting educational initiatives.

Poets.org is the Academy’s primary digital platform, offering access to over ten thousand poems, biographies of more than 3,000 poets, essays, interviews, poetry recordings, a national events calendar, and educational materials. The site receives over 17 million visits annually and serves readers, writers, educators, students, and poetry patrons nationwide.

The Academy organizes National Poetry Month every April since 1996, the largest literary celebration in the world, engaging thousands of organizations and tens of millions of people across the United States through free poetry resources, events, and community participation.

The Academy produces Poem-a-Day, a daily digital series that publishes over 200 previously unpublished contemporary poems annually, along with poet commentary and classic poem features on weekends. The program distributes new poems each weekday and includes bilingual presentations of poems in translation.

The Academy offers free educational resources including lesson plans aligned with Common Core standards, the Teach This Poem series, and the Dear Poet Project—a multimedia initiative inviting students in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems by award-winning poets. Resources are organized by theme, occasion, and social issues such as LGBTQ experiences and environmental justice.