Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has commissioned an original poster each year to celebrate National Poetry Month. Distributed free of charge to schools, libraries, bookstores, and community organizations across the United States, these posters reflect a range of creative approaches—featuring poems and quotations, honoring individual poets, and exploring art-forward and typographic designs. The archive below traces the evolving visual history of National Poetry Month and the many ways poetry has been presented and celebrated each April.
Learn more about how to get involved with National Poetry Month.
1996
Artist: Michael Ian Kaye (photo by Arthur Tress)
Description: Black-and-white photographic image featuring silhouetted face and bird shadow with red bracket elements
1997
Artist: Jessica Weber (illustration by Edward Koren)
Description: Illustrated poster featuring cartoon-style animals under a rainbow reading a book
1998
Artist: Betsy Bell
Poet Quoted: Walt Whitman
Poem: “I Hear America Singing”
Description: Reproduction of Jasper Johns, Map (1961)
1999
Artist: Betsy Bell
Description: Graphic poster featuring black-and-white photographic portraits arranged in grid with red typographic overlay
2000
Artist: Betsy Bell
Description: Graphic poster featuring black-and-white photographic portraits arranged in grid with blue typographic elements
2001
Artist: Betsy Bell
Description: Collage-style graphic poster featuring American poet postage stamps arranged on envelope design
2002
Artist: Betsy Bell
Poet Quoted: Langston Hughes
Poem: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”; “To You”
Description: Collage-style graphic poster with text excerpts, archival photographs, and centennial tribute elements. Centennial tribute design
2003
Artist: Betsy Bell
Description: Graphic poster featuring stylized map composed of layered translucent color fields
2004
Artist: Milton Glaser
Description: Graphic poster featuring bold “Poetry!” typography with decorative patterned letterforms
2005
Artist: Chip Kidd and photograph by Randi Baird
Poet Quoted: Emily Dickinson
Source: Quotation from a letter by Emily Dickinson
Description: Poster featuring Emily Dickinson’s white dress against black background with red border
2006
Artist: Number Seventeen, NYC
Description: Graphic typographic poster with blue and gray blocks arranged in grid layout. Multi-excerpt design
2007
Artist: Christoph Niemann
Poet Quoted: Walt Whitman
Poem: “As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days”
Description: Illustrated typographic poster with circular composition of repeated text
2008
Artist: SpotCo
Poet Quoted: Jay Wright
Poem: “The Healing Improvisation of Hair”
Description: Graphic poster featuring red three-dimensional lettering suspended above open hands
2009
Artist: Paul Sahre
Poet Quoted: T. S. Eliot
Poem: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Description: Photographic typographic poster featuring condensation on glass forming quotation
2010
Artist: Marian Bantjes
Poet Quoted: Wallace Stevens
Poem: “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour”
Description: Ornamental typographic poster with layered geometric patterns and decorative lettering
2011
Artist: Stephen Doyle, photograph by Victor Schrager
Poet Quoted: Elizabeth Bishop
Poem: “A Word with You”
Description: Photographic poster featuring illuminated text installation in garden reflected in water
2012
Artist: Chin-Yee Lai
Poet Quoted: Philip Levine
Poem: “Our Valley”
Description: Watercolor-style illustrated poster with horizontal painted bands
2013
Artist: Jessica Helfand
Poet Quoted: Rainer Maria Rilke
Source: Letters to a Young Poet
Description: Collage-style typographic poster featuring vintage stationery and writing instruments
2014
Artist: Chip Kidd
Poet Quoted: Walt Whitman
Poem: “Song of Myself,” from Leaves of Grass
Description: Photographic poster featuring red cast of Walt Whitman’s hand against grass and sky
2015
Artist: Roz Chast
Poet Quoted: Mark Strand
Poem: “Eating Poetry”
Description: Comic-style illustrated poster in nine-panel grid format
2016
Artist: Debbie Millman, production by Emily Weiland
Poet Quoted: Multiple poets
Source: Florilegium of twenty contemporary poems
Description: Typographic collage layering lines from multiple poems in varied fonts and colors
Additional notes: 20th anniversary poster
2017
Artist: Meirav Kelman
Poet Quoted: Gwendolyn Brooks
Description: Collage-style illustrated poster with painted figures, objects, botanical elements, and handwritten text
2018
Artist: None listed
Description: Typographic branding poster with large grass-textured green letterforms arranged in grid layout
2019
Artist: Julia Wang
Poet Quoted: Tracy K. Smith
Poem: “An Old Story,” from Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018)
Description: Mixed-media painted illustration featuring hand-lettered banners in wooded scene
2020
Artist: Samantha Aikman
Poet Quoted: Joy Harjo
Poem: “Remember,” from She Had Some Horses (W. W. Norton & Company, 1983)
Description: Photographic artwork featuring suspended wood slices with hand-lettered text
2021
Artist: Bico Liu
Poet Quoted: Joy Harjo
Poem: “For Keeps”
Description: Painted illustration depicting silhouetted figure leaping above roadway at dusk. 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month
2022
Artist: Lara L. (Grade 11 student winner)
Poet Quoted: Amanda Gorman
Poem: “In This Place (An American Lyric)”
Description: Collage-style graphic poster incorporating newspaper textures and cut-paper motif. Student poster contest–winning design.
2023
Artist: Marc Brown
Poet Quoted: Ada Limón
Poem: “Carrying,” from The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018)
Description: Painted pastoral landscape featuring figures walking a dog in a field
2024
Artist: Jack Wong
Poet Quoted: Lucille Clifton
Poem: “blessing the boats,” from Quilting: Poems 1987–1990 (BOA Editions, 1991)
Description: Painted illustration of a child mid-leap above water
2025
Artist: Christy Mandin
Poet Quoted: Naomi Shihab Nye
Poem: “Gate A-4”
Description: Illustrated artwork selected by Scholastic.
