April is National Poetry Month, and has been since 1996. This April is no exception! Why not order a free NPM 2020 posterPoster with a poem written on slices of trees and celebrate poetry from home this year? Here are four ways you can participate in National Poetry Month 2020 without leaving your place:

  1. Read (or listen to) a Poem a Day! Poets.org offers a daily poetry series called Poem a Day, a curated selection of previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets. You can read them on Poets.org (and have the option to subscribe to get each day's poem emailed to you), or listen in podcast form. 
  2. Take in a video or podcast poetry reading. There are a lot of offerings out there! I personally love Write About Now's beautiful, high-energy videos. They also offer a podcast.
  3. Participate in an online poetry workshop. Poet, playwright, and actor Dave Johnson is offering an online workshop series called 10*10*10, a 10-minute poetry workshop livestreaming every morning at 10:00 am for 10 consecutive days! Follow the YouTube playlist or check this page at Poets House.org for today's workshop.
  4. Take a (free!) online poetry course. Sites Like OpenUniversity and Coursera curate free online courses taught by professors at colleges and universities across the States (and sometimes from other places too!). Check out Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop from the California Institute of the Arts, or Modern & Contemporary American Poetry from the University of Pennsylvania.

Finally, even though our building is closed, you can read a lot of the library's poetry collection online. And if we don't own your favorite poetry collection yet, we'd love to hear about it -- fill out our recommendation form and you might see it on next year's National Poetry Month book display!

Elizabeth Tappy
Librarian, Reference & Instruction Coordinator