For National Poetry Month 2016, we presented Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invited young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors. And to help teachers bring Dear Poet to the classroom, we worked with a curriculum specialist to design a lesson plan, aligned with the Common Core.

Thank you to all of the classrooms that participated in this year's project—we received over 1,300 letters. Take a look at the correspondences between students and Chancellors, as well as the letters we've received from 826 National Students, National Student Poets, National Youth Poet Laureates, and students from across the country.