The Poetry Foundation has a number of literary events and programs in celebration of National Poetry
Month, April 2012.
Poetry
In celebration of the magazine’s centennial year and National Poetry Month, more than 60,000 free copies of
Poetry’s
April issue were distributed to more than 11,000 reading groups around
the world—triple the number of participants in 2011. In the April 2012
issue,
Poetry
readers find new poetry from Karen An-Hwei Lee, Yusef Komunyakaa, David
Lehman, Sandra Simonds, Wendy Videlock, and others, as well as poems
from the magazine’s 100-year archive, including original work from
Gwendolyn Brooks, Geoffrey Hill, Howard Nemerov, and Muriel Rukeyser.
Readers can find the entire April issue of
Poetry online as of April 1, along with the April discussion guide and the April magazine podcast.
Harriet: The Blog
The Poetry Foundation’s blog,
Harriet,
will host more than 30 poets during the month of April, including
Stephen Burt, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Daisy Fried, D.A. Powell, and Rachel
Zucker. Poets will engage in a lively month-long conversation about
poetry, poetics, and the poetry blogosphere. This is the third year the
blog will host a National Poetry Month discussion.
Follow the conversation.
The East Village Poetry Walk
Passing Stranger—The East Village Poetry Walk
is the new audio walking tour of poetry-related sites in New York City’s
East Village. Focusing on poetry and poets from the 1950s to the
present, including Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Koch, Frank O’Hara, Ron
Padgett, and Anne Waldman, the tour stops include St. Mark’s Church
in-the-Bowery, W.H. Auden’s old apartment building, Tompkins Square
Park, and the Bowery Poetry Club. Each stop presents a montage of
poetry, interviews, and archival recordings relating to that particular
place. Users can take the two-mile tour using an mp3 player.
Download the free audio file and a map
outlining the route.
Passing Stranger—The East Village Poetry Walk was created by Pejk Malinovski with support from the Poetry Foundation.
Poetry for Children: Martha Speaks and Arthur
The Poetry Foundation has teamed up with WGBH to help promote poetry to
children during National Poetry Month. Best-selling poet Billy Collins
and inaugural Children’s Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky will appear on
episodes of beloved children’s TV programs
Martha Speaks and
Arthur
on Monday, April 2, on PBS KIDS (check local listings). Beyond the
broadcast, kids are invited to create and publish their own poetry
online with the all-new game
Martha’s Rhyme Time
at
pbskids.org/martha. Kids can also write and share their poems online with Fern’s Poetry Club at
pbskids.org/arthur. In addition, the Poetry Foundation’s
@PoetryFound Twitter handle will participate in a Tweet-Up discussion of children’s poetry on Wednesday, March 28, from 8pm to 9pm CT.
The POETRY App
The National Magazine Award-nominated POETRY app is now available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. The app features
Poetry
magazine poems, plus hundreds of additional poems by classic and
contemporary poets—from William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather
McHugh. Users can search for old favorites with memorable lines,
discover new poems to fit any mood, save favorite poems to read and
share later through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.
Download the free app.
American Life in Poetry
April 2012 marks the seventh anniversary of
American Life in Poetry, a project that brings free poetry content to newspapers around the country. Founded by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser,
American Life in Poetry
regularly runs in newspapers across the country and is published in a
range of Internet outlets. Over the last seven years the column has
featured more than 300 poets, including award-winning poets Linda
Pastan, Jane Hirshfield, and Robert Bly. The column not only brings
contemporary poetry to a wider audience but also restores poetry’s
traditional place in newspapers, where the column is well received by
regular readers.
Sign up to receive the column.
