We’ve loved having monthly themes here on the blog. February was Black History Month, an opportunity to profile amazing authors, scholars, educators, and speakers who enrich our studies, our understanding, and our lives. Then March was Women’s History Month, a chance to honor the wisdom, innovation, determination, creativity, compassion, humor, and strength of female authors, scholars, educators, and speakers.

April is National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets started the party in 1996, and it’s become the largest literary celebration in the world. The Academy of American Poets hoped it would:

• highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets,
• encourage the reading of poems,
• assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms,
• increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media,
• encourage increased publication and distribution of poetry books, and
• encourage support for poets and poetry.

We couldn’t agree more with those goals, and plan to help the cause by featuring poets and poems here on the blog for the whole month of April. If you can’t wait for our first post tomorrow, here are some places you could go right now and find out more about poetry and poets, as well as read some great poetry:

• Academy of American Poets
• Button Poetry
• The Writer’s Almanac
• Rattle Poetry
• Poetry Foundation
• Poetry Out Loud
• Poetry Archive
• Poetry Society of America