New York, NY (May 21, 2019)— The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that it has received $120,000 from the Amazon Literary Partnership program to create a new Poetry Fund and grant to poetry organizations and presses that specialize in poetry. This new grantmaking alliance is consistent with the Academy’s growing role as a national convener and supporter of poetry organizations nationwide and part of Amazon Literary Partnership and the Academy's joint efforts to further build the readership of poetry.
“We’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with the Amazon Literary Partnership to support poetry organizations and poetry presses, especially as poetry in the U.S. is having a heyday with more readers today than in the past fifteen years,” said Jennifer Benka, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets. “This boon has been exciting to see, but it's also meant that poetry organizations need more assistance. We appreciate that the Amazon Literary Partnership program was quick to recognize this and respond.”
“The Amazon Literary Partnership’s goal has been to support organizations that are vital to sustaining the literary culture of their communities,” said Neal Thompson, Manager of the Amazon Literary Partnership. “By funding organizations working to uplift the voices of underrepresented writers, we hope to champion the writers, poets, and translators of the world we live in now. We are thrilled to be working with the Academy of American Poets to reach these impactful organizations committed to supporting today's most exciting poets.”
The Academy of American Poets, in cooperation with the Amazon Literary Partnership program, convened a grantmaking panel that included poet and publisher Parneshia Jones, Indiana Poet Laureate Adrian Matejka, and Academy of American Poets Chancellor Emeritus Arthur Sze. Final award decisions were made by ALP in partnership with the Academy. The inaugural recipients are:
Alice James Books
BOA Editions, Ltd.
Cave Canem
Copper Canyon Press
Furious Flower Poetry Center
National Poetry Series
Nightboat Books
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Poetry Society of America
Poets House
Undocupoets
University of Arizona / CantoMundo
White Pine Press
About the Amazon Literary Partnership
Since 2009, the Amazon Literary Partnership has awarded more than $12 million in grant funding to more than 150 literary organizations, with a particular focus on supporting a diversity of voices. Grant recipients include nonprofit writing centers, residencies, fellowships, after-school classes, literary magazines, national organizations supporting storytelling and free speech, and internationally acclaimed publishers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. As part of its decade-long effort to help writers tell their stories and find their readers, on May 20, 2019, the Amazon Literary Partnership announced over $1 million in grant funding to 66 nonprofit literary organizations across the country in addition to its support of the new Academy of American Poets Poetry Fund. To learn more about the Amazon Literary Partnership please visit www.amazonliterarypartnership.com.
About the Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is our nation’s leading champion of poets and poetry. Founded in 1934, the organization produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly-funded website for poets and poetry; National Poetry Month; the popular Poem-a-Day series; American Poets magazine; Teach This Poem and other resources for K-12 educators; an annual series of poetry readings and special events; and awards more funds to poets than any other organization. It also coordinates and supports the work of a national Poetry Coalition, an alliance of more than 20 poetry organizations working to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.