The Academy of American Poets was founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. To fulfill this mission, the Academy administers a wide variety of programs, including National Poetry Month (April), the largest literary celebration in the world; online educational resources providing free poetry lesson plans for high school teachers; the Poetry Audio Archive, a collection of over 700 recordings dating back to the 1960s; and Poets.org, our award-winning website which provides a wealth of content on contemporary American poetry and receives a million unique users each month.

The Academy also conducts High School Poetry Workshops for New York City students and publishes the biannual journal, American Poet. In addition, the Academy administers the most important collection of poetry awards in the United States. These awards include the Wallace Stevens Award, the Academy Fellowship, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the James Laughlin Award, the Walt Whitman Award, the Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, and student prizes at nearly 200 colleges and universities nationwide.

The Academy of American Poets is recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under the Internal Revenue code and meets all 20 Better Business Bureau charity standards. Donations to the Academy of American Poets are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

The Academy of American Poets provides the most important collection of awards for poetry in the United States. Awards are available for poets at every stage in their careers, from first-book prizes to lifetime achievement awards. Guidelines, entry forms, and lists of winners are available online.

The official website of Academy of American Poets, Poets.org offers hundreds of essays and interviews about poetry, biographies of more than 500 poets, more than 2,500 poems, and audio clips of 150 poems. Each month, the site receives over a million unique visitors, making it one of the largest and most popular poetry sites on the internet.

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

The Academy keeps a complete archive of its live poetry readings and other events, dating back to 1963. Many of these audio clips are available through our audio pages. Many more are available as full CDs in our Gift Shop.

Launched in 1996, American Poet is the Academy's biannual journal. The publication's aim is to provide a panorama of the contemporary poetic landscape. Each issue features interviews and reviews, alongside the work of both established and emerging writers.