April 2022 marks the 26th annual celebration of poets and poetry and it’s not too late to make a plan for poetry month! Whether you want to sign up to write a poem a day or unofficially just plan to crank out some poetry in April, there are plenty of prompts and resources to keep you going strong all month. And that’s not all that’s going on either. Note: Check back often, since I’ll be updating this list as I come across other resources to participate in poetry month.

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. Read more about the creation of National Poetry Month here at Poets.org

Ways to participate

• Download the National Poetry Month logo (in color, grayscale, for web or print) to display on your web site or social media
• Download a free National Poetry Month poster
• More ways to celebrate on Poets.org
• Poetry & the Creative Mind available virtually! The program features leading and legendary actors, dancers, artists, musicians, and public figures sharing their favorite poems.

Read/Listen/Watch Poems

• Sign up to receive a poem-a-day in your email inbox
• Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day podcast
• Listen to poems on the Poetry Archive web site
• “Dear Poet”: Promoting Poetry and Poets Laureate to Kids at Home – watch poems read by poet laureates
• Poets in Pajamas series – hosted by Sundress Publications, Sundays at 7pm EDT
• Wednesday Night Poetry open mic – hosted by Kai Coggin
• Green Mountains Review Social Distance Reading Series – You can find past readings by Terrance Hayes, Kathryn Nuernberger, Philip Metres, and more.
• Sierra Poetry Festival Archive of virtual events and readings

New Orleans Poetry Festival 2022 is up and running every day in April! Remember everything is free and open. Check out the calendar here. You can also watch the archive of past events here. 

National Poetry Month Reading & Open Mic featuring Maggie Smith – The International Women’s Writing Guild‘s spring programming for Poetry Palooza concludes with a National Poetry Month special event Thursday, April 7 at 7pm eastern! I’m excited to be hosting this event and to introduce the incomparable Maggie Smith, followed by a Q&A and open mic.

Virtual: National Poetry Month Celebration w/ The Rumpus – Join Books Are Magic and The Rumpus for a celebration of National Poetry Month w/ Derrick Austin, Michael Chang, Chen Chen, & Brionne Janae. Fri, April 15, 2022, 7:00 PM – 7:45 PM EDT, register free.

Virtual LGBTQ+ Book Hour: National Poetry Month Celebration! Saturday, April 30, 2022, 3:30 – 4:30 PM, EDT via New York Public Library.

National Poetry Month: I am America by Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library – Alixen Pham, poet/writer/artist, hosts this four-week Virtual Public Poetry Reading Series along with poets: Robbi Nester, .chisaraokwu., Chris Tonelli, Linda Ravenswood, Lisa Nanette Allender, Aruni Wijesinghe, Fred Joiner, Nikolai Garcia, Ash Tré Phillips, and hector son of hector. Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 6:00 PM PDT.

University of Wisconsin – Madison, National Poetry Month Celebration – “Welcome to the Writing Center’s celebration of National Poetry Month! We’re celebrating by sharing poems and reading guides, 30 prompts for the 30 days of April, ways to share your poetry, and more. Each week, we will feature a particular poetic form, poet, and a series of writing prompts. Come back each Monday throughout April to find something that piques your poetic interest!”

NaPoWriMo.net 30 poems in 30 days – Participate in NaPoWriMo.net 30 poems in 30 days prompts and poet web site listings.

Writer’s Digest is running their April Poem-A-Day Challenge – Anyone can participate and there is no registration required and no fees. They will post a daily prompt; you write a poem based on the prompt; you post the poem in the comments on their blog. Easy and fun! You can also submit up to five poems to be shared on the Writers Digest site.

30 poetry prompts for NAPOWRIMO via Carolee Bennett – including links to other online prompts and past poetry prompts

Other Sites with Poetry Prompts

Poetry Super Highway Prompt-A-Day – Submit your own prompt to be posted and read other poet’s prompts during April.

Fifty Two Poetry – includes 52 poetry prompts. “Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going.”

Poets & Writers puts out regular prompts for poetry as well as fiction and nonfiction on their Writing Prompts page. You can also subscribe to their e-newsletter and receive them right in your inbox weekly.

Ploughshares shares their favorite writing prompts of all-time.

500 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing from The Learning Network. “The categorized list below touches on everything from sports to travel, education, gender roles, video games, fashion, family, pop culture, social media and more, and, like all our Student Opinion questions, each links to a related Times article and includes a series of follow-up questions. What’s more, all these questions are still open for comment by any student 13 or older.”

Bernadette Mayer’s list of writing prompts – The Poetry Foundation describes Bernadette Mayer as “an avant-garde writer associated with the New York School of poets . . . known for her innovative use of language.”

If you find other ways to participate or NaPoMo activities, please share them in the comments!

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