Dear Poet 2015

For National Poetry Month 2015, we presented Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invited young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors. And to help teachers bring Dear Poet to the classroom, we worked with a curriculum specialist to design a lesson plan, aligned with the Common Core.

Read a selection of the 1,500+ letters we received from young people to Toi Derricotte, Marilyn Hacker, Juan Felipe Herrera, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Arthur Sze, and C. D. Wright, and their heartfelt responses back.

read the letters

Thanks to our friends at Figment for their support of this project.

Toi Derricotte reads "For Telly the Fish"

Marilyn Hacker reads "Rune of the Finland Woman"

Juan Felipe Herrera reads "Jackrabbits, Green Onions & Witches Stew"

Edward Hirsch reads "Cotton Candy"

Jane Hirshfield reads "The Weighing"

Naomi Shihab Nye reads "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?"

Arthur Sze reads "The Chance"

C. D. Wright reads "Like Hearing Your Name Called in a Language You Don't Understand"