American Poets Magazine

One of the most widely distributed poetry magazines featuring a panorama of poems, essays, and more by American poets

American Poets Magazine

    ... and much more

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    Browse features from previous issues:

    Audre Lorde, Courtesy W. W. Norton

    Dismantling Rage: On Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider

    Years ago, when I was a young Black woman barely recognizable to myself because of the churn of heat...
    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    “Renascence”: Edna St. Vincent Millay Today

    “We think back through our mothers,” as Virginia Woolf famously said. I think Edna St. Vincent...
    Walt Whitman

    Poetry & Democracy: Khaled Mattawa on Whitman’s Democratic Vistas

    In his essay Democratic Vistas (1871) Walt Whitman writes, “Democracy... is a great...

    Richard Blanco

    Richard Blanco on His Poem “Mother Country” and His Work Today

    Excerpted from How to Love a Country: Poems (Beacon Press, 2019).

    Ai

    Assuming the Mask: Persona and Identity in Ai’s Poetry

    On the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Ai's poetry collection, Killing...

    Mónica de la Torre

    Emerging Poet: On Mónica de la Torre

    No one I know writes like Mónica de la Torre. Many...

    Solmaz Sharif, Photo credit: Arash Saedinia

    Eileen Myles and Solmaz Sharif: A Conversation Across Generations

    Eileen Myles moved from Boston to New York City to become a poet in 1974. Since then, she has...

    Matthew Zapruder

    Late Humanism

    So much of what makes art interesting and human are its particulars. Everyone comes from somewhere,...
    Joanne M. Braxton

    Paul Laurence Dunbar at 150

    The year 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of

    Sandra Beasley

    Entering the Whirlpool

    When I went to the University of Virginia’s bookstore to pick up semester readings for Fall 1999,...

    Ange Mlinko

    Ange Mlinko on “The Waste Land”

    Among the medieval artifacts in the British Museum is an example of what’s called an acoustic...

    Trapeta B. Mayson

    Poetry’s Healing Work

    When people ask me what I do for a living, I start by telling them that I am a licensed clinical...