The Academy of American Poets is honored to present its 2022 Leadership Award in poetry to Joy Harjo, three-term Poet Laureate of the United States, during the organization’s signature National Poetry Month event, Poetry & the Creative Mind, which will be held virtually on April 28, 2022. The award, which was inaugurated in 2018, honors individuals, organizations, and publishers who have made significant contributions to the art of poetry.
Harjo will be recognized for her role as the first-ever Native American U.S. Poet Laureate and only the second U.S. Poet Laureate in the position’s 77-year history to serve three terms, and for her leadership in championing Native Nations poets past and present through publications and projects like “Living Nations, Living Words,” which gathers works by contemporary Native poets from across the nation into a fully-digital map and audio collection, celebrating their essential contributions to American poetry.