The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning illustrator Maira Kalman designed the official celebratory poster for National Poetry Month, April 2017. Each year the organization distributes a poster free-of-charge to over 100,000 schools, libraries, and bookstores nationwide for their April celebrations.

Known to draw from her own life story and all of its absurdities, Kalman was selected by renowned graphic designer Chip Kidd on behalf of the Academy of American Poets.

“Maira Kalman is the perfect choice to create the National Poetry Month poster,” said Chip Kidd. “She is the John Ashbery of painted illustration, whimsical and haunting, but with more dogs and pastry. Which is always a good thing.”

National Poetry Month, created and organized by the Academy of American Poets, is the largest literary celebration in the world with millions of people celebrating poetry in their communities each April. The Academy of American Poets provides special lesson plans for teachers during the month, promotes local events, and distributes the official National Poetry Month poster through partnerships with the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. The poster is also available for free upon request on the organization’s website, Poets.org.

About Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York with her family at the age of four. She has worked as a designer, author, illustrator and artist for more than thirty-five years. She has written and illustrated fourteen children's books, often illustrates for The New Yorker magazine, and is well known for her collaboration with Rick Meyerowitz on the NewYorkistan cover in 2001. Recent projects include The Elements of Style (illustrated) and two monthly online columns entitled Principles of Uncertainty (2006-07) and The Pursuit of Happiness (2008-09) for The New York Times. During 2010-2012 she authored or illustrated four books, including Michael Pollan’s Food Rules and Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up.

Maira Kalman has had five exhibitions at the Julie Saul Gallery since 2003. In 2010, The Institute of Contemporary Art organized a retrospective of Kalman's work, entitled Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World), which traveled to The Jewish Museum (New York, New York), the Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles, California), the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco, California), and the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in New York City.

About Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is an award-winning graphic designer and writer in New York City, where his groundbreaking book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf have impacted the form for close to three decades. He has worked with hundreds of writers, including John Updike, Katherine Hepburn, Cormac McCarthy, Henry Louis Gates Jr., James Ellroy, Karen Russell, Michael Crichton, David Sedaris, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Sharon Olds, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Simon, Neil Gaiman, and Haruki Murakami. His first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, was a national bestseller, and his recent book, GO, is the first book to teach graphic design to children. He is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communications, and his TED talk has been viewed over 1.2 million times to date.

About the Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. 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 the American Poets Prizes.