Writers and Editors

 

• Online poetry and literary publications
• How to submit poetry
• Where to submit poetry• Poets and money: Do poets ever get paid?

• Paris Review interviews with poets
• Other interviews with, stories about, and profiles of poets
• Punctuating poetry (and creating line breaks)
• Poetry awards and contests
(Legitimate contests vs. contest scams)

• Arts and poetry organizations

• Helpful or interesting poetry-related sites and articles

Attention: Poets aspiring to be published:Be aware that there are many scam poetry contests out there, trying to get your money.Among links below are guides to finding the legitimate poetry contests.Above all: Sign nothing granting or selling all future rights to your poetry.

How to submit poetry

"It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money
writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it."

~W.H. Auden

• The Truth About Poetry Manuscripts (Emily Harstone, Authors Publish) Many poetry publishers charge a reading fee or a contest entry fee for authors without a significant track record (a book or two). A legitimate publisher will not charge more than a reading fee. "But the reading fee has become standard for poetry manuscript contests and even for open reading periods. Reading fees usually range in price from $25 to $50." But, Harstone continues in another piece, here are 94 Poetry Manuscript Publishers Who Do Not Charge Reading Fees
• Simplify Your Submissions to Literary Journals (John Sibley Williams on Jane Friedman's blog, 3-26-19) Take a look at the full (and fascinating) comments section.
• Submittable: How It Works. Submittable is a form of software many poetry reviews and publications use to manage submissions. The idea, I gather from my poet friend Sarah, is to find the links to Submittable software for a particular periodical. 
     Here's what a Fast Company piece says about Submittable: "This cloud-based platform is used by thousands of businesses––including CBS, Simon & Schuster, and The Atlantic––to collect, organize, and accept payment with the submission of files such as resumes, video, audio, manuscripts, and applications. Users can collaborate on the submissions (imagine editors making notes in a draft, as I have with others in Dropbox, or jurors accepting entry fees and then reviewing documentaries submitted to a film festival) and access files from any device."

• "Submittable 85 percent cheaper for members of CLMP (John Maher, Publishers Weekly, 12-9-19) The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses has negotiated a unique pricing plan for the use of Submittable by CLMP members. The plan, which costs $29/month or $290/year for up to 500 submissions per month, is priced at an 85% discount from Submittable's standard pricing.
• Submissions & Letters to the Editor of Poetry
• Poetry Magazine's submission system (read and follow the instructions!)
• Submitting poetry to the New Yorker
• How to Submit Poetry FAQs (PDF, Jane Friedman)
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry (Center for Media Social Justice, CMSI)

 

 

Where to submit poetry

• Where to Submit (Trish Hopkinson's helpful website)
• Best Places to Submit Poetry: A Ranking of Literary Magazines (Bookfox)
• Literary Magazines (Poets & Writers)
• The Submission Grinder a donation-supported submission tracker and market database for writers of fiction and poetry
• Poet's Market (revised annually)
• 40 Literary Journals Accepting Poetry Submissions (S. Kalekar, Authors Publish, 12-18-23)
• 28 Literary Markets that Accept Poetry (S. Kalekar, Authors Publish, 11-15-21)
• 24 of the Best Places to Submit Poetry Online (Meghan Christie and Sean Glatch, Writers.com, 7-22-2020)
• 8 Literary Journals that Publish Poetry that Rhymes ( Emily Harstone, Authors Publish, 8-29-24)
• The Practicing Writer 2.0: A Newsletter from Erika Dreifus. Curating fee-free (AND paying) calls and competitions—plus other resources—for writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

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Poets and money: Do poets ever get paid?

"Working on poems is like cheating on your husband. It's what I really want to do but they won't pay me for it." ~ Mary Carr, The Art of Memoir (Paris Review)

 

• 325 Paying Markets for Short Stories, Poetry, Nonfiction (Erica Verrillo, Published to Death blogspot, 5-21) "These magazines represent everything from speculative fiction, to poetry, to gardening. Payments range from $1.25 to $1,000. You will find a home for your work in this list. (This list is continually updated.)"
• 20 Paying Markets for Poetry (Erica Verrillo, Writing Cooperative, 8-21-18)
• Advice on how to sell poetry (Neile Graham) Do read this.
• Frequently asked questions (The Poetry Society, UK)
• Poet at Work: Examined Life (O. T. Marodin, The Point, 2016) A poet attempts to solve the timeless question: How should a poet make money?

• Indie Authors and the Value of Free Content (Jane Friedman, Publishers Weekly, 1-19-18) Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey. "Kaur started publishing her work on Tumblr in 2013, then moved to Instagram in 2014. That same year, she self-published a collection of her poetry on Amazon; soon, her popularity caught the attention of a traditional publisher. Milk and Honey has now sold more than a million copies and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 52 consecutive weeks." "Think through what readers value in terms of experience or access."
• 13 poets laureate to receive more than $1 million in grants (AP, Star Tribune, 4-24-19)

• The Writing Class (Jaswinder Bolina, Poetry Magazine, 11-12-14) On privilege, the AWP-industrial complex, and why poetry doesn’t seem to matter. "Graduate school endorses the idea that we are rare and recruited for our talents, but the more accurate statement might be that we are rare only because we have access to graduate school. Once there, we’re taught to engage in the thinking and behaviors of academic culture, a collective entity whose origins and practices don’t have anything to do with the working and low-income classes we’re more accurately a part of when we don’t land a tenure-track job."
And what the heck: How to Write and Sell Greeting Cards, Bumper Stickers, T-Shirts and Other Fun Stuff by Molly Wigand, one of several books on a field poets might consider as a sideline!
• Do famous poets earn a lot of money from their poems? (Quora, a general-interest, question-and-answer website) Guess what the most common answer is.

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Punctuating poetry (and line breaks)

• Breaking Grammar Rules in Poetry Writing (Melissa Donovan, Writing Forward)
• Punctuating Poetry Part One by LaMonica (Deviant Art)
• To Punctuate or Not (Sheila Packa, 8-9-11). Interesting explanation of the punctuation of three poets (Lucille Clifton, Lorine Niedecker, e.e. cummings) who do NOT use much punctuation, so when they do it usually means something or serves a poetic purpose.
• Hannah Ensor on Denise Levertov's "On the Function of the Line" (1979) (Essay Daily, 12-14-18) See also Some Notes on Organic Form (Denise Levertov, Poetry Foundation) and On the Function of the Line (posted at UA Little Rock)
• Punctuation and Line Breaks in Poetry (Ann L. Camy, Poetry Society of Colorado)
• crush me back to sleep (SycamoreSea, Deviant Art, 3-30-15). A good example of a poem with (almost) no punctuation.

" Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again."~Greg Bear

Arts and poetry organizations

• Academy of American Poets (Poets.org). Founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry— the producer of Poets.org, Poem-a-Day, National Poetry Month, and more.  See their Facebook page, sign up for their Poem a Day page, and check out their archive of more than 3,000 biographies of contemporary and classic poets, among other resources.
• American poets prizes (Academy of American Poets)
• Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) pocast series
• Authors Guild (this professional organization for published authors and freelance writers offers advice on contracts royalty statements, and protecting authors' rights and lobbies on issues related to copyright, taxation, and freedom of expression)
• Button Poetry produces, distributes, and promotes spoken word and performance poetry, broadcasting today's best and brightest poets on a daily video (via YouTube)
• Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP, frequently asked questions page)
• From the Fishouse (an audio archive of emerging poets)
• How a Poem Happens (Contemporary Poets Discuss the Making of Poems)
• LitLine, its list of organizations devoted to keeping literature alive
• Haiku Society of America (promoting Haiku in English)
• IndieFeed: Performance Poetry (the best spoken word artists working in the field today). Has ceased releasing new shows but old ones are still online.
• Jupiter 88 (a video journal of contemporary poetry, hosted by CA Conrad)
• Library of Congress Poet Vision Video Series
• Library of Congress: The Poet & the Poem Series (audio podcasts, in two parts)
• Literary Hub (poetry section)
• MotionPoems (videos based on poetry)
• Moving Poems (the best poetry videos on the web)
• The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT)
• National Federation of State Poetry Societies
• National Poetry Map (find poets and poetry near you)
• New Pages literary links
• Northern Poetry Review (Canada)
• PEN American Center
• Poem Elf
• Poem Talk (Poetry Foundation discussions of poems)
• Poetry @ Princeton
• Poetry Foundation (articles, tools, blog, Poetry Magazine)
• The Poetry Book Society (UK)
• Poetry Pacific (a literary e.zine)
• The Poetry Society (UK)
• Poetry Society of America (PSA)
• Poetry Society of Virginia
• Poetry Space (UK)
• Poetry Spoken Here (the finest poetry, read and performed)
*** Poets & Writers (a very helpful site)
• Poets & Writers Great poetry resources in the DC/Capital area.
• Poets House (a national poetry library and literary center)
• Poets in Need (provides emergency assistance to poets who have an established presence in the literary community and a substantive body of published work)
• Primal School (a place to learn how a poem is made)
• Resources for New Poets & Fiction Writers (Kathryn Mockler's site)
• The Society of Classical Poets ("Rhyming, rhythmic, and rapturous")
• Speakeasy (Poets & Writers forum)
• Teachers & Writers Collaborative
• Twitter list of small literary presses and journals

" A poem is like a score for the human voice." ~ Li-Young Lee

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Poetry awards and contests

“It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.” ~ W.H. Auden

***Poets & Writers' detailed list of contests, grants, and awards
***Poetry Society of America links to legitimate poetry contests for books, for chapbooks, and for single poems.
• G&A: The Contest Blog (Prize Reporter, Grants and Awards, Poets & Writers).
• Poetry Contests (TCK Publishing) Details about a dozen or so poetry contests.
• [Literary/Poetry] Contests and Services to Avoid (Winning Writers) Some make poets buy their anthologies as a condition of publication. Some try to sell you services, such as manuscript editing or agency representation. Vanity contests are characterized by low standards, and are willing to publish most of the submissions they receive (typically half or more). Few copies are sold to independent buyers or libraries. "All of the contests listed here are a waste of your time."
• Christopher Fielden links to UK poetry competitions, many of which are open to U.S. participants.
• Wikipedia list of poetry awards from around the world
• On Poets and Prizes (Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young, ASAP Journal,11-11-2020) While novels and memoirs receive regular review attention in the mainstream media, poetry is largely invisible in American culture. The "literary prize is understood as softening the insularity of poetry and providing a wider angle of evaluation, one regulated by the nation’s major literary institutions." A long, fascinating article about the horse-trading aspects of poetry awards, including who is appointed a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
• Legitimate poetry contests vs. contest scams
• Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, plus contests and other sources of funding (Writers and Editors)
• Markets and Contest for Writers (Winning Writers)
• Contests and Services to Avoid (Winning Writers)
• Warning Signs of a Bad Literary Contest (Winning Writers)

 

Specific awards and prizes for poetry:

Many more than are listed here are listed by the above

***Academy of American Poets. Numerous awards for American Poets in the United States, ranging in value from $1,000 to $100,000. Among them, the
---Academy of American Poets Fellowship ($25,000 to one poet)
---Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award ($1,000) recognizes a student poet twenty-three years old or younger
---Ambroggio Prize (a $1,000 publication prize) for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation
---Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. Any translator who meets one of the three following criteria on the date of the submission deadline, in any given year, is eligible:
...U.S. Citizen
...Resident of the United States for the ten-year period prior to the submission deadline, or
...Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Legal Permanent Status (LPS), or any subsequent categories designated by the U.S. authorities as conferring similar enhanced status upon non-citizens living in the United States.
---James Laughlin Award given to recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year. Named for the poet and publisher James Laughlin (1914–1997), who founded New Directions in 1936. The winning poet receives a prize of $5,000, an all-expenses-paid weeklong residency at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, and distribution of the winning book to approximately one thousand Academy of American Poets members.
---Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize ($25,000) award recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous calendar year. The prize includes a ten-day residency at Glen Hollow in Naples, New York, and distribution of the winning book to hundreds of Academy of American Poets members.
---Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Awards ($10,000 book prize and a $25,000 fellowship, given in alternate years)
---University & College Poetry Prizes Cash prizes ($100) have been awarded to nearly ten thousand student poets since the program's inception
---Wallace Stevens Award (which carries a $100,000 stipend) given annually to recognize outstanding artistic achievement in the art of poetry over a poet's career
---Walt Whitman Award ($5,000), publication of his or her manuscript by the award-winning Graywolf Press, an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in the Umbrian region of Italy, and a trip to New York City to attend the American Poets Prizes Ceremony. And the Academy of American Poets distributes copies of the winning book to thousands of its members.

• Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships (launched in 2019) Awards of $50,000 - $100,000 to honor poets of literary merit appointed to serve in civic positions and to enable them to undertake meaningful, impactful, and innovative projects that engage their fellow residents, including youth, with poetry, helping to address issues important to their communities. See Mellon Foundation Grants $4.5 Million to Academy of American Poets (Peter Libbey, NY Times, 1-30-2020) The money will help the organization fund its program for poets laureate in cities and communities around the United States.
• Akron Poetry Prize (University of Akron Press) $1,500 and publication of your book, open to all poets writing in English.
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals (Wikipedia entry) Each year two awards are taken in rotation from a list of categories that includes Poetry and Music.
---American Academy of Arts and Letters (all awards). "Each year the American Academy of Arts and Letters honors over 70 architects, visual artists, writers, and composers with awards and prizes ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. Candidates for awards are nominated by members of Arts and Letters with the sole exception of the Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater, for which there is an open application. Award recipients are chosen by committees drawn from the membership. These awards are an important way for our members to support artists who are not members; members are not eligible to receive monetary awards." See also archived (Wayback Machine) entries on various awards from the American Academy.
• Bobbitt Prize for Poetry (a privately funded $10,000 poetry award given under the auspices of the Library of Congress--the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry)
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry at Yale ($100,000), a prestigious literary honor bestowed every two years on an American poet, in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.
• Emily Dickinson First Book Award (Poetry Foundation) $10,000 and publication of one book-length poetry manuscript by an American poet of at least 40 years of age who has yet to publish a first collection of poetry.
• Grayson Books poetry prizes, two prizes, all writers eligible: The Poetry Chapbook Prize, $500 and publication, 16-32 pages of poetry; and prize for full-length collection, $500 and publication, 16-32 pages of poetry.
• Griffin Poetry Prize, Canada's most generous prize. One top prize of $65,000 to a Canadian poet, one top prize of $65,000 to an International poet and numerous $10,000 prizes to runners up, for poetry books published by traditional publishers.
• Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards (Claremont Graduate University) The $100,000 Kingsley Tufts award. established by his widow, Kate Tufts, is for mid-career poets who have previously published books of poetry. The Kate Tufts Discovery Award ($10,000) goes to a first-time poet. See FAQs.
• Levis Reading Prize (Virginia Commonwealth University, honoring poet Larry Levis, awarded annually for the best first or second book of poetry published in the previous calendar year.
• Literary Taxidermy Writing Competition (Regulus Press) Create original stories and poems using the opening and closing lines of classic works of literature. In previous years, participants have tackled works by Lewis Carroll, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, crafting stories and poems in every genre, from science fiction to meta-fiction, and from sonnets to free verse.
• Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards ($1,000, for adult winner; $200 for youth awards) An annual series of awards to encourage poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. Awards in three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under.
• National Poetry Series Five winning poets each receive a $10,000 cash prize in addition to having a full-length manuscript published by a participating publisher (Beacon Press, Ecco, Milkweed Editions, Penguin Books, and University of Georgia Press). Open to U.S. residents and American citizens living abroad.
---NPS Paz Prize Miami Book Fair will award one $2,000 prize every other year (in even years) for the publication of a previously unpublished book of poetry originally written in Spanish by an American resident. The prize will recognize book-length manuscripts of poetry written in Spanish.
• Poetry Magazine Prizes
---Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition
---Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships Five fellowships of $27,000 each awarded to young poets in the U.S. through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine.
---The Bess Hokin Prize ($1,000)
---The Levinson Prize ($500)
---The Frederick Bock Prize ($500)
--- The J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize ($5,000)
---The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for translation work ($500)
---The Friends of Literature Prize ($500)
---Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism honors the best book-length works of criticism published in the US in the prior calendar year, including biographies, essay collections, and critical editions that consider the subject of poetry or poets.
---The Editors Prize for Reviewing. There is also an Editors Prize for Criticism, an Editors Prize for Visual Poetry ($1,000), and an Editors Prize for Feature Article ($1,000)
• Omnibook Dawn Poetry Chapbook Contest Prizes ($1,000) for various contests: single poem, chapbook, and poetry book competitions.
• Poetry Society of America Awards Seven awards

   The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award (for a short poem, $250)

   The Cecil Hemley Memorial Award (for a narrative poem, $500)

   Lyric Poetry Award (for a lyric poem on any subject, $500)

   The Lucille Medwick Memorial Award (for a prose poem, $500)

   The Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award (for 10 pages of poetry from a manuscript-in-progress, $1,000)

   The George Bogin Memorial Award (for a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of its forms, $500)

   The Robert H. Winner Memorial Award (for a manuscript of 10 pages by a mid-career poet who has not had substantial recognition, $2,500).
• Poetry Society of America. The Four Quartets Prize (for a unified and complete sequence of poems published in America in a print or online journal, chapbook, or book, $20,000)

   PSA also offers Chapbook Fellowships and the Frost Medal ($5,000, for distinguished lifetime achievement in American poetry, by nomination only) and the Shelley Memorial Award ($12,000, awarded to a poet, selected with reference to his or her genius, by a jury of poets—one appointed by the president of the University of California at Berkeley, and one by the Poetry Society of America).
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry $15,000 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author.
• Rattle Poetry Prize ($10,000 to winner and $200 to ten finalists, for U.S. poets)
• Arthur Rense Prize, an award of $20,000 given triennially to an exceptional poet, by the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000) Recognizes book-length translations of poetry from any language into English published during the current year.
• Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Awards (Academy of American Poets), for outstanding translations into English of modern Italian poetry through a $10,000 book prize and a $25,000 fellowship, given in alternating years
• Sophie Kerr Prize (half of the income from her bequest to Washington College, valued at $61,000 in 2014, is awarded to the graduating senior demonstrating the best potential for literary achievement, for both creative and critical writing.
• Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship (an annual scholarship of about $54,000 to support travel abroad for gifted American-born poets. No age requirement, nor need poet be previously published, though previous winners have been.
• Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (Academy of American Poets) $25,000 for best poetry collection by a living poet published in the United States during the previous year, plus an all-expenses paid ten-day residency at Glen Hollow in Naples, New York.
• Montreal International Poetry Prize ($50,000 for one poem, in English). As reported by Poets&Writers, New Fifty-Thousand-Dollar Poetry Prize Has Global Ambitions (G&A, Prize Reporter, 4-4-11)
• Banipal Trust for Arab Literature A prize of £3,000 awarded annually for a book of poetry or fiction translated from Arabic into English, published for the first time in English during the previous year.
• Wag's Review (awards of $1,000 to $100 for top prizes, plus publication, weighed against $20 entry fee per item of poetry, essay, or fiction).
• Walt Whitman Award (Academy of American Poets) $5,000, publication of manuscript by the award-winning Graywolf Press, an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in the Umbrian region of Italy, and a trip to New York City to attend the American Poets Prizes Ceremony.
• Concrete Wolf Chapbook Award and Concrete Wolf Louis Poetry Book Award (for poets age 50 and over who have not yet published a full-length poetry collection)
• Welsh Poetry Competition (UK)
• Creative Writers Opportunities List (CRWROPPS-B), Yahoo list, calls for submissions and contest information for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
• Creative Writing Contests (Manuscript Editing)

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" Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." ~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 

Paris Review Interviews with Poets

• W. H. Auden, The Art of Poetry No. 17 (interviewed by Michael Newman)
• Elizabeth Bishop, The Art of Poetry No. 27 (interviewed by Elizabeth Spires)
• Robert Bly, The Art of Poetry No. 79 (interviewed by Francis Quinn>
• Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83 (interviewed by George Plimpton)
• T. S. Eliot, The Art of Poetry No. 1 (interviewed by Donald Hall)
• Robert Frost, The Art of Poetry No. 2 (interviewed by Richard Poirier)
• Philip Larkin, The Art of Poetry No. 30 (interviewed by Robert Phillips
• Allen Ginsberg, The Art of Poetry No. 8 (interviewed by Thomas Clark)
• Robert Graves, The Art of Poetry No. 11 (Interviewed by Peter Buckman and William Fifield)
• Geoffrey Hill, The Art of Poetry No. 80 interviewed by Carl Phillips)
• William Carlos Williams, The Art of Poetry No. 6 (interviewed by Stanley Koehler)
• Seamus Heaney, The Art of Poetry No. 75 (interviewed by Henri Cole)
• Ted Hughes, The Art of Poetry No. 71 (Interviewed by Drue Heinz)
• Carolyn Kizer, The Art of Poetry No. 81 (Interviewed by Barbara Thompson Davis)
• Stanley Kunitz, The Art of Poetry No. 29 (Interviewed by Chris Busa)
• Robert Lowell, The Art of Poetry No. 3 (interviewed by Frederick Seidel)
• Archibald MacLeish, The Art of Poetry No. 18 (interviewed by Benjamin DeMott)
• Philip Levine, The Art of Poetry No. 39 (interviewed by Mona Simpson)
• Derek Mahon, The Art of Poetry No. 82 (interviewed by Eamonn Grennan)
• Marianne Moore, The Art of Poetry No. 4 (interviewed by Donald Hall)
• Pablo Neruda, The Art of Poetry No. 14 (interviewed by Rita Gilbert)
• Octavio Paz, The Art of Poetry No. 42 (Interviewed by Alfred Mac Adam)
• Kay Ryan, The Art of Poetry No. 94 (Interviewed by Sarah Fay)
• Charles Simic, The Art of Poetry No. 90 (Interviewed by Mark Ford)
• Derek Walcott, The Art of Poetry No. 37 (Interviewed by Edward Hirsch)
• Charles Wright, The Art of Poetry No. 41 (interviewed by J. D. McClatchy)

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Other interviews with and stories about poets

• Poets (The Poetry Foundation)
• Poet Profiles (The Poet Magazine)
• Interview with a Poet (LitHub series)
• Poets at Work, Interviews from the Paris Review) (a book)
• Interviews with Poets (Poets.org)
• Iconic Interviews with 6 Historical Poets (Read Poetry) Ezra Pound, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Anne Sexton, and Maya Angelou.
• The Luminous Particular (Maya C. Popa, Poetry Foundation) An interesting new biography of Jane Kenyon frees the poet from the shadow of her famous older husband. Her marriage to Donald Hall may not have been the blissful relationship that Hall imagined, but as Dana Greene attests, Hall was instrumental, practically speaking, in making it possible for Kenyon to be the poet she wanted to be. Greene's compressed and focused five-star biography Jane Kenyon: The Making of a Poet (University of Illinois Press, 2023), manages to disentangle Kenyon, who suffered from depression and wrote about it, from the narrative woven by her charismatic older husband.

      See especially Kenyon's poem Having It Out With Melancholy (click on arrows to follow a series of varied stanzas)
• Interviews with Poets (Writer's Digest series)
• Sandra Cisneros on the Private Act of Writing Poetry (LitHub, 9-30-22) Every day, poetry summons me in the same way that the minarets let loose their silk call to prayer. I find writing poetry a most subversive act.
• Sandra Cisneros May Put You in a Poem (Yxta Maya Murray, New Yorker, 9-21-22) The writer discusses her revealing new book of poetry, “Woman Without Shame,” her peripatetic life, and that infamous blurb for “American Dirt."
• Poet Profiles (The Culture Project)
• How Fame Fed on Edna St. Vincent Millay (Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 5-16-22) Before the age of the movie star, she became America’s first starlet. Millay was born poor in Maine, and she achieved unprecedented renown as a poet. But it came with a cost.
• The Long Awakening of Adrienne Rich (Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 11-23-2020) Some called her coarse, extreme, too quick to change. In fact, she was always one step ahead. On the occasion of publication of The Power of Adrienne Rich: A Biography by Hilary Holladay
• Anecdotes about T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), from Anecdotes About Authors
• U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (audio, Diane Rehm show, 1-23-13). U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey was born in Mississippi, 100 years to the day after Confederate Memorial Day was established. Her mother was black, her father is white. Their marriage was against the law in the state. Her poetry explores the interplay of race and memory in her life and in American history. The past she mines is often unsettling: growing up biracial in the deep south of the 1960s, the lives of forgotten African-American Civil War soldiers, her mother’s murder and the legacy of slavery. Tretheway is the first poet laureate to move to Washington, D.C., and work out of the Library of Congress since the position was established in 1986. She’s the first southern Poet Laureate since Robert Penn Warren. And she’s the first person to serve simultaneously as the poet laureate of a state –- Mississippi –- and the nation. In 2007, she received a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection, “Native Guard.” Last year, she published a follow-up titled, “Thrall.” She joins Diane to talk about the role of poetry in our everyday lives. The beautiful poem she reads early in the interview is W. H. Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts."
• 10 of the Most Important Poets of the 21st Century (Poem Analysis)
• Vajesinh Pargi: a life in letters, and worse (Rural India Online) From the margins of mainstream Gujarati literature to which he was relegated, he wrote powerful poems about hope, hardships, and hunger. A tribute to the fine poet who wrote in Panchmahali Bhili and Gujarati
• An Interview with Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate (Poets.org, 6-19-19)

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"We have been able to have fine poetry in England because the public do not read it, and consequently do not influence it." ~ Oscar Wilde

Legitimate contests vs. contest scams • Entering to Win: On Poetry Contests (Robert Casper, Poets.org, The Academy of American Poets) • Poetry Publishing Scams to Avoid (Rhonda Taylor, Poets) Of all the genres of writing, poetry seems to attract the worst scammers. A rundown on how the scams are presented. • Web Resources that Help You Identify Scams • Writing Contests: When Winners Are Losers (Moira Allen Writing-World.com, on scams writers should be aware of) • Contests and Services to Avoid (Winning Writers) • Poetry scams? (Durant Imboden, Writing.org) The good news: You're a winner. The bad news: It's costing you fifty bucks.< • 7 Ways to Become the Victim of a Poetry Contest Scam (John Hewitt, PoeWar, 1-11-10) • Contests and Agencies to Avoid (Winning Writers) • How to Tell If a Poetry Contest Is Legit or a Scam (Beth Eaglescliffe, Tough Nickel, 12-27-21) Don't pay to see your work in print. • Getting the Scoop on Poetry Contest Scams (Linda Alice Dewey, Absolute Write) • The Contest Scheme (Writer Beware, SFWA). In this version of the vanity anthology scheme, writers are targeted via a free contest. Another variation: Pay to Play Anthologies and other schemes to get writers to open their wallets. • Writer Beware (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America). On this site you will find all kinds of money traps for writers: Click on links to Thumbs Down Agencies, Thumbs Down Publishers, Vanity Anthologies (where the contributors pay, not the readers), various publishing scams, and more. Educate yourself, if you're new to publishing!

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Other helpful or interesting poetry-related sites and articles

Roughly in alphabetical order, so they're easier to find

“Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.”

~W.H. Auden, New Year Letter

• Amanda Gorman and Michelle Obama Discuss Art, Identity and Optimism (Time, 2-4-21) Amanda Gorman captivated the world when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Jan. 20 Inauguration ceremony. The two women covered topics ranging from the role of art in activism to sisterhood to the pressures Black women face in the spotlight.
• Absolute Necessities (Jeff Gordinier, Poetry Foundation). The recession confession of a poetry shopaholic. A paperback isn’t that expensive, but trust me, all those impulse buys add up. See also Comments.
• Advice to Writers: 'Love People' (Joe Fassler, "By Heart" series, The Atlantic, 6-3-14) Author Rupert Thomson says a Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem taught him the value of risk. "Even more broadly, 'Zima Junction' asks us to move from the known into the unknown—from home to away, from ourselves towards others. It’s a call for us to move beyond our comfort zones, geographical and psychological, and explore new places that may threaten or frighten or challenge us."
• Academy of American Poets programs (Poets Forum, National Poetry Month, Poem-a-Day, National Poem in Your Pocket Day, Poetry & the Creative Mind, American Poets Prizes, Fall Conversation Series,The Blaney Lecture, Teach This Poem, Newsletter signup.
• Another Person’s Words: Poetry Is Always the Speaker (Ed Simon, The Millions, 7-16-19) "We’re all just lines in a conversation that began long ago, and thankfully shall never end. If you listen carefully, even if it requires a bit of decipherment or decoding, you’ll discover the answer to any query you may have. Since all literature is a conversation, all poems are centos. And all poems are prophecies whose meanings have yet to be interpreted."
• Articles from Poets & Writers
• The Art of the Metaphor (Jane Hirshfield, TedEd video lesson)
• The Art of...the excellent series from Graywold Press, includes these books, among others:
---Doty, Mark. The Art of Description: World into Word
---Longenbach, James. The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach
---Voigt, Ellen Bryant. The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song
---Young, Dean. The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction. "Evolve your poetics," writes Amy King.
• Ask a Librarian (Saison Poetry House, U.K.)
• Margaret Atwood's tribute to poet and teacher Jay MacPherson (delivered at Victoria College 6-11-12)

• Battle-Hardened Poets Fuel a Literary Revival in Ukraine (Constant Méheut and Daria Mitiuk, Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, NY Times, 8-24-25) Read or listen. With verses that capture the raw emotions of the war and resonate deeply with the population, Ukrainian poets have emerged as some of the country’s most influential voices.
---The War in Ukraine Is the True Culture War (Jason Farago, NY Times, 7-15-22) "With Russia trying to erase Ukraine’s national identity, the fight to preserve, and build upon, Ukraine’s artistic heritage has taken on new urgency....What Ukraine is proving, amid the slaughter, is that civil society can make a difference against a superior military force. Cultural power is real power. Ukrainian culture, as much as arms, is keeping all of our democratic dreams alive."

• The Book of My Poetry Has Been Remaindered. Clive James' classic poem about about literary schadenfreude, as posted by Dwight Garner on the NY Times Paper Cuts blog about books.
• Brandon Leake Makes 'America's Got Talent' History With Powerful Poetry (YouTube,6-30-2020) His audition: The first "spoken word" performance and winner: an ode to his sister. See also his semi-final performance a poem to his father Tyrone. (H/T Paula Stahel)
• Bucking the establishment:How self-published writers can sidestep literary-world snubs (Jennifer Levin, Pasatiempo, 2-6-15) “There was always a distinction between academic poetry and street poetry. In street poetry, you take more chances, talking in the vernacular. There’s a raw intelligence out there that isn’t so formal," [said poet John Macker]. “I’m not part of the academy, and when I read The American Poetry Review, which I do rarely, the work by university-connected poets seems to be written for each other and for their students. There’s a little bit of a wall around that writing — in-jokes and a private dialogue going on between the academic writers that doesn’t exist out in America...."
• Busboys and Poets Open Mic Guidelines & FAQ (Washington DC area)

 

• Chapbooks. What is a Chapbook + 9 Chapbook Publishers (Authors Publish) Chapbooks are very small books, usually no more than 30 pages in length, 50 at the most. They frequently have no spine and are often bound with staples. They have been around for a long time, at least since the 16th century, when they were associated with fiction, but now they almost always function as a vehicle for poetry.

 ChatGPT, artificial intelligence,and poetry
• What Poets Know That ChatGPT Doesn’t (Walt Hunter, The Atlantic, 2-13-23) There’s a reason the AI writes pretty awful verse. The poems that ChatGPT writes are riddled with cliché and wince-worthy rhymes, among other problems.
• 6 exciting ways to use ChatGPT – from coding to poetry (Axel Metz, TechRadar, 12-29-22) Is this AI-powered chatbot coming for Google's crown? It comes with problems but ChatGPT could reinvent the search engine.

• Charles Wright Named America's Poet Laureate (Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 6-12-14). Wright turned to poetry because he couldn't tell a story. Once he retired, he started reading crime fiction. "'I’ve picked up every narrative I could get my hands on, to make up for 50 years of nonnarrative.' Not that he thinks he’s cracked the cosmic whodunit pondered in his verse. 'Poetry is the dark side of the moon,'he said. 'It’s up there, and you can see the front of it. But what it is isn’t what you’re looking at. It’s behind what you’re looking at.'"
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry (Center for Media Social Justice, CMSI)
• Colonies, Conferences, and Festivals (Poetry Society of America links)

 

• David Biespiel's Poetry Wire: The Poets Journey (read chapters from his book free, online, on The Rumpus). "Every time you write a poem, you’re learning to become a poet once again. Your writing imitates not the banal sequence from life to death, but instead imitates a descent into and out of a new womb of clarity."
• Dear Ms Morgan: your guidance is a mini-syllabus on how to wreck poetry (Michael Rosen, The Guardian, 4-7-15) You cannot prescribe and measure children’s reaction to a poem, or confine it to exact or correct meanings
• Dear Writer: Reasons to Love and Fear Your Copyeditor (Sally Fisher Saller, the Subversive Copy Editor, in Prime Number)
• Denise Levertov on the Role of the Poet (Academy of American Poets)
• Directory of Poetry Publishers (AWP)
• Duotrope (a subscription-based service for writers and artists that offers an extensive, searchable database of current fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art markets, with a robust search function)

 

• 18 Best Books of (or about) Poetry in 2015 (Grace Cavalieri, Wash Indep Rev of Books, 1-12-16)
• Electronic poetry and Stephanie Strickland

 

• Fair Use. See Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry (Center for Media Social Justice, CMSI). You can also download from the Poetry Foundation (scroll to bottom of article).This was compiled by the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute in collaboration with American University’s Center for Social Media and Washington College of Law. Work on this document resulted from research that the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute’s working group did on copyright and fair use for its publication Poetry and New Media: A Users’ Guide, which was released in February 2010 (and which I don't find online in 2020).
• The Four Types of Poetry Events (Connor Sansby, Thanet Writers) A discussion of the four types of poetry event: open mics, slams, showcases, and one-person shows. Arguably, the most recent major development in delivering poetry is slams, beginning in 1984, so there is an audience waiting for something new. Poetry has become an experimental art-form and that should apply to events as well as writing.
• 50 literary magazines that may accept poetry submissions.

 

• Haiku Rules of the Road (an interesting slant on haiku by Neal Whitman, poetry editor for Pulse -- "voices from the heart of medicine"). Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables (first line, 5 syllables, second line, 7, third, 5). See entries on Pulse's haiku slide show. KFF Health News also welcomes health haikus. Submit here. Samples here. See also 14 Twitter haikus to celebrate World Poetry Day (delightful) and Japanese Haiku Poetry Resources
• Hall, Donald. Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry (from youth through old age) and Life Work (reflections on the pleasures of work become more when the well-known poet and memoirist learns, at 63, that he has cancer). '
• Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell, who said in an interview for The Biographer's Craft, asked how her previous scholarship prepared her for that work: "Biography... is essentially storytelling, and fluid prose matters more than it does in other forms of scholarship....I would advise others making this transition not to get too attached to the particulars of their research. I had to omit much that I had learned in order to keep the story moving."
• How Poetry Came to Matter Again (Jesse Lichtenseing, The Atlantic, 9-2018) A young generation of artists is winning prizes, acclaim, and legions of readers while exploring identity in new ways. Through the use of personal identity and “I” narratives, they are bringing back forms of poetry long thought obsolete. In the words of the author, this is a “renaissance” for modern poetry. How will these poets and their work fit into the establishment at large? "Emerging poets of this digital-native generation are ready to work at getting their words and their names out there. A number of them have agents and publicists (this is not, historically speaking, normal!)."
• Handbook for Literary Translators (free download from PEN America)
• How Important Is an Author’s Biography? (Stefanie, So Many Books). This general essay refers to The Lives of Lorine Niedecker: How important is a poet's biography? (Hannah Brooks-Motl, Poetry Foundation, 7-16-13)
• How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing Its Title or Author (Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes; Library of Congress Web guide to finding poems)
• How to Write a Poem (Gordon Lish, Paris Review, 4-3-18) Fiction about a certain kind of poet.

 

 

• Letter to the Poetry Foundation from Fellows + Programmatic Partners (6-6-2020) Petition requesting that Poetry Foundation president Henry Bienen and board of trustees chair Willard Bunn, III, be replaced by someone who supports artists from marginalized communities.
• Links for poets (excellent resources, American Academy of Poets)
• A Literary Bromance, Now in Its Sixth Decade (Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 6-25-16) The poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti recently sent his friend and literary agent, Sterling Lord, the manuscript for “To the Light House,” which blends autobiography, fiction and surrealist riffs on mortality, nature and consciousness. It’s the closest thing to a memoir that he’ll ever write, he said. The story of a long and interesting friendship between a poet and his literary agent.

 

• Making enemies, through poetry (Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star, 10-4-13) Just who does this Jefferson Carter character think he is, anyway? (The kind of story that sells poetry.)
• Lesson plans and other materials for teachers (Poets.org, Academy of American Poets)
• Library of Congress Poetry Resources (compiled by Peter Armenti)
• Literary devices, defined (LiteraryDevices.net)
• Me, myself and I: How easy is it to write confessional poetry? (Christina Patterson, The Independent, 1-23-13). Sharon Olds' account of her marital break-up made her a deserved TS Eliot winner. But that doesn't mean confessional poetry is easy to pull off. Confessional poetry, says critic Mack Rosenthal, is poetry that "goes beyond customary bounds of reticence or personal embarrassment."
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet (Heather Grace Stewart, guest post on Paul Lima's blog, 6-19-12)
• Murmuration (YouTube). A beautiful collective film poem, celebrating our love for the natural world in a time of Climate Crisis and Coronavirus. The Murmuration project is part of Writing the Climate, poet Linda France’s residency at New Writing North and Newcastle University. The hour I saw this I also stumbled across Tom Gauld's literary collective cartoons (a chapter of novelists, a draft of editors, etc.) from The Guardian.
• My Path to Print on Demand Poetry

 

• National Poetry Month (April, Academy of American Poets). See also FAQ about it.
• Neil Gaiman's poem on a scarf: warm words for refugees The British author and UNHCR ambassador worked with the Global Refugee Forum to ask people to tell him what reminds them of warmth. Using people's submissions via Twitter, Gaiman wrote a story poem which was knitted onto a 'solidarity scarf'. The scarf was created by refugees to help raise funds for refugees facing harsh winter conditions.
• OEDILF (The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form)
• ‘Our Minds Are Still Free:’ These Former Prisoners Find Strength Through Poetry (Tyron Turner, WAMU, ) Once you’ve been behind bars, words can feel like freedom. That's the idea behind Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop (Free Minds uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken DC youth incarcerated as adults to their own potential.)

 

• Paris Review "Writers at Work" interviews (from 1953 on)
• Poem a Day (the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year--from Academy of American Poets)
• Poet Lore (America's oldest poetry journal, estab. 1889)
• Poetry and Literature (Library of Congress, links to many helpful resources)
• Poetry Audio Recordings: A Guide to Online Resources (Library of Congress). Invaluable guide to selected online resources for audio recordings of poets reading and discussing their work.
• Poetry...Do I Dare? Sample High School Unit of Study for Grades 9 and 10 (NYC Dept. of Education)
• Poetry Explication &UNC Writing Center)
• Poetry Gets Some Poetic Justice (Richard Morgan, NY Times, 8-28-13) "In 40 years I've never seen it so vibrant here," said Alice Quinn, the Poetry Society's executive director and a former poetry editor at the New Yorker. "I half-expect a poetry cafe to pop up any day now in Hudson Heights."
• “Poetry has great work to do”: An Interview with Carolyn Forché (Claire Mullen, Ploughshares,7-18-19) "Poetry tells a different story than history does. Poetry, I think, records the human soul’s response to history. Just as the historian attempts to assemble the facts of what happened and give them a shape or a narrative, I believe that poetry is the history of the soul in these times. It’s the record of the journey of the human soul and how it responds."
• Poetry journals, publishers, literary organizations, gatherings, contests, and writing programs (Poetry Society of America)
• PoetryLovers daily poem (subscribe, free, to get a poem every day in your email -- and to read the collection of poems "released" in past)
• Poetry Lovers' Page (poetry by Poe, Stevenson, Kipling, and other famous British, American, and Russian poets, submitted by readers)
• Poetry Lovers @poemstogo (Facebook page)
• Poetry Magazine (articles from)/a>
• Poetry Near You (Academy of American Poets)
• Poetry Speaks, where poets and poetry publishers and fans of poetry and poets can gather and interact, listen to poetry, upload their poems read aloud)
• Poetry that frees the soul (Cristina Domenech's TED talk, filmed Sept. 2014 at TEDxRiodelaPlata). This moving talk is in Spanish with subtitles, about how her prison writing workshops, which focus on short poems (reading and then writing them), profoundly affect inmates' lives. Poetry that makes a difference. At the end one of the men reads his poem--to a HUGE crowd.
• Poets & Writers Magazine
• Poet's Market 2016, ed. Robert Lee Brewer. An annual directory.
• A Poet's Double Life (Pamela Taylor's blog for poets working outside the literary world)
• Poets House Suspends Operations Amid Pandemic; Employees Cry Foul (John Maher, Publishers Weekly, 11-19-2020)
• Presidents as Poets: Poetry Written by United States Presidents (created by Peter Armenti, Library of Congress Web guide)
• Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine Every Friday posts online a first-person story or poem, together with a visual image or haiku, about health care. Submit a story or haiku. See Submission guidelines.

 

• RealPoetik. You can sign up for their mailing list.
• Resources for Science Writers Interested in Applying Poetry to Their Own Writing (Bradley Allf, The Open Notebook, 5-3-22) Making your science writing sing: Craft lessons from poetry. See resources at end of article.
• Resources for teachers (Academy of American Poets)
• Rhyme Desk, an online rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and syllable counter
• RhymeZone, an online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

 

• Selby's List of Experimental Poetry/Art Magazines
• Small Press Distribution (SPD, connecting readers with writers of poetry, innovative fiction, and cultural writing)
• Small Presses Are on the Rise: Is Poetry Leading the Way? (Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives, 3-24-02)
• Stressed, Unstressed: Classic Poems to Ease the Mind ed. by Jonathan Bate and Paula Byrne, who are offering a free online course Feb. 3, 2016: Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing
• 17 of the Best Poetry Books, as Recommended by Acclaimed Writers for National Poetry Month (Michelle Hart, Oprah, 4-19-19)
• The Stafford Challenge, a commitment to writing a poem every day for a year, starting January 17, 2024, inspired by the legendary poet William Stafford.
---Facebook page for the Stafford Challenge

• Submitting your work for publication (Charlie Hughes)

 

• Talking Volumes (MPR's Kerri Miller's multimedia interviews with poets Josephine Dickinson and Galway Kinnell, on Star-Tribune site)
• That's What It Meant: Symbolism in Poetry (English.Answers.com, recommended by Dylan)
• Tracy K. Smith, the 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate, on Why Poetry Is for (Serena Alagappan, Oprah, 10-22-19) She reflects on her latest book, Eternity. )
• Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs, updated 2012. BestCollegesOnline.com (includes poets who blog)

 

• Understanding Poetry (video, Robin Williams from the movie The Dead Poets Society
• The Waste Land (Wikipedia's excellent entry on T.S. Eliot's long, rich poem) See also The Shock and Aftershocks of “The Waste Land” (Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 10-3-22) T. S. Eliot’s masterpiece is a hundred years old, but it has never stopped sounding new.

 

• What Is a Poem? (Mark Yakich, Atlantic, 11-25-13) You read it; it reads you. An Object Lesson.
• What Poetry Form Am I? (do answer the questions)

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