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.
“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.
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Ways to participate
- Download the National Poetry Month logo (in color, grayscale, for web or print)
- Order a free National Poetry Month poster
- Learn how to participate in National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30, 2015
- Sign up to receive a poem-a-day in your email inbox
- Participate in NaPoWriMo.net 30 poems in 30 days prompts and poet web site listings (kicks off in March, but you can see previous year prompts if you want to create your own list)
- Participate in the 30 Day Poetry Challenge Facebook community, which posts a prompt each day in April and publishes an anthology later in the year
Writer’s Digest is running their April Poem-A-Day Challenge
Anyone can participate—there’s no registration 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 5 poems to be shared on the Writers Digest site.
ELJ Publications 30/30 pop culture or found poetry project
Participants complete a form, setup a blog specifically for the project, join the Facebook group and then post a poem everyday and enjoy feedback from other poets!
IMPROMPTU 30/30 experimental poetry prompts
The online lit mag Found Poetry Review has called upon 30 influential poets to create 30 experimental poetry prompts for National Poetry Month; and anyone can join in the fun! Each day in April they will post a new prompt and participants can post the results of their writing efforts or a link to their poem in the comments on the FPR web site.
Yellow Chair Review 30/30 prize drawing
Yellow Chair Review will be showcasing a poet each day on Facebook, their editor Sarah France Moran will be posting her daily 30/30 poems, and anyone who commits to doing 30 poems in 30 days will be entered to win a drawing for a poetry package with at least 4 poetry books and other goodies! Click here to sign up.
Tiferet Journal is sponsoring a Poem-A-Thon
“All participating poets will receive their choice of a FREE copy of Diane Lockward’s The Crafty Poet or a FREE copy of Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s Writing Poetry To Save Your Life, and a FREE digital subscription to Tiferet upon meeting your sponsorship goal.”
There’s no fee to join, but they do ask that you commit to finding friends and family to sponsor your writing (suggested goal is $100). They will help provide promotional text you can share about the project on your blog or other social media and Tiferet will share your poems and bio as well.
DEADLINE: April 1 (with a week grace period up until April 6)
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.
Prasanna’s Parrot Picks & Prompts – a wonderful feature on Cahoodaloodaling which highlights recently published poems from Sundress Publications and then suggests a related prompt for each one. Really excellent work by their new staff member Prasanna Surakanti.
Fifty Two Poetry – includes 52 poetry prompts. “Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going.”
Found Poetry Review – posts found poetry prompts on their blog regularly.
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 shared their favorite writing prompts of all-time in this article posted in December. Lots of great prompts in this list, including one I hope to take advantage of: “Write a dialog between your eyes and feet,” from Anastacia Tolbert.
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.”
Seven one word prompts with a gardening theme from poet Joan Leotta.
If you find other ways to participate or NaPoMo activities, please share them in the comments!
