Poets.org: 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month, April 2019

Poets.org has posted 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month this year. This list was created by Poets.org and is a suggestion of different activities writers, readers, and educators can celebrate the written word. For more information regarding National Poetry Month, or Poets.org, please visit their website!

1. Request a free copy of the National Poetry Month poster until mid-April; posters can be purchased for $5.00 each in our Poets shop thereafter (while supplies list).
2. Sign up for Poem-a-Day and read a poem each morning.
3. Sign up for Teach This Poem, a weekly series for teachers.
4. Memorize a poem.
5. Create an anthology of your favorite poems on Poets.org.
6. Encourage a young person to participate in the Dear Poet project.
7. Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore.
8. Review these concrete examples of how poetry matters in the United States today.
9. Learn more about poets and poetry events in your state.
10. Ask your governor or mayor for a proclamation in support of National Poetry Month.
11. Attend a poetry reading at a local university, bookstore, cafe, or library.
12. Read a poem at an open mic. It’s a great way to meet other writers in your area and find out about your local poetry writing community.
13. Start a poetry reading group.
14. Write an exquisite corpse poem with friends.
15. Chalk a poem on the sidewalk.
16. Deepen your daily experience by reading Edward Hirsch’s essay “How to Read a Poem.”
17. Ask the United States Post Office to issue more stamps celebrating poets.
18. Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day today! The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with coworkers, family, and friends.
19. Read about different poetic forms.
20. Read about poems titled “poem.”
21. Watch a poetry movie.
22. Subscribe to American Poets magazine or a small press poetry journal.
23. Watch Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s P.O.P (Poets on Poetry) videos.
24. Watch or read Carolyn Forche’s talk “Not Persuasion, But Transport: The Poetry of Witness.”
25. Recreate a poet’s favorite food or drink by following his or her recipe.
26. Read or listen to Mark Doty’s talk “Tide of Voices: Why Poetry Matters Now.”
27. Read Allen Ginsberg’s classic essay about Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
28. Sign up for a poetry class or workshop.
29. Get ready for Mother’s Day by making a card featuring a line of poetry.
30. Read the first chapter of Muriel Rukeyer’s inspiring book The Life of Poetry.

 

 

This post was originally posted on poets.org.

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month is held in April every year. According to Poetry.org it is “the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives.”

The celebration was founded in 1996 with the following being top priority for the event:

• 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.

While there are many ways to participate in the event, Ink Smith Publishing has decided to hold a Poetry Takeover for the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month. Submission requirements can be found on our blog –—submission deadline has been extended to March 25, 2019. We encourage writers and readers to stop by our blog throughout the month to read pieces from both published and unpublished authors. Poets.org has also offered a list of ways for writers, readers, and educators to participate in the event! You can find that list below, or visit their website for more information.

• Follow the thousands of National Poetry Month celebrations taking place and follow the Academy of American Poets on Twitter @POETSorg.
• Use the National Poetry Month logo to promote your events. It can be downloaded here.
• Order a free National Poetry Month poster and display it proudly.
• Invite K-12 students to participate in our Dear Poet project by writing letters in response to poems shared by the award-winning poets serving on our Board of Chancellors.
• Attend Poetry & the Creative Mind, a celebration of poetry from the reader’s perspective featuring leading and luminary actors, artists, and public figures, which takes place each April in New York City.
• Participate in National Poem in Your Pocket Day.
• Sign up for Poem-a-Day.
• Join the Academy of American Poets and show your support year-round for poets and poetry.
• Share your photos and feedback about your National Poetry Month celebrations with the Academy of American Poets by emailing npm@poets.org.

Poetry Takeover Submissions Extended!

Submissions deadline has been EXTENDED to March 25, 2019, 11:59PM EST. 

National Poetry Month is Coming! 

In honor of Poetry Month this year, Ink Smith Publishing will be accepting poetry submissions to feature on our blog! All genres are being accepted, no restrictions on length, and there is no need to be a previously published author. If you would like to participate in our takeover please follow the guidelines below.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Poems should be formatted in .doc, .rxt, or .pdf format.
2. Submissions should be emailed to: editorinksmithpublishing@gmail.com. APRIL POETRY SUBMISSION should be utilized in the subject line of the email.
3. Please include a short bio (no more than 200 words) about yourself and where to find your poetry. You may include social media handles as well, we’d love to be able to link to you when we post!
4. You may also include a head shot, but it is not required. Please make sure if you do include a head shot it is in .jpeg or .png format, and is a business professional photo.
5. While there are no restrictions on length, topic, or content, we do ask that the poetry be tasteful and tactful. Ink Smith reserves the right to reject any poetry that is unnecessarily vulgar or offensive.
6. Ink Smith plans to post as many poems as possible, but do not promise that your submission will be posted on the site.
7. There is no fee associated with this takeover and poets are encouraged to submit multiple works.

 

Welcome, J. Edward Hackett!

Ink Smith Publishing welcomes, author J. Edward Hackett to the Ink Smith family, with his debut novel The Flight of the Ravenhawk which will be available Spring 2019. Pre-orders will go live on the Ink Smith website in April.

J. Edward Hackett, Ph.D. is an academic philosopher at Savannah State University who rather than engage in metaphysical speculation in process metaphysics is off building magick systems in his world of Apeiron. Fantasy fiction is itself an exploration of concepts in extreme for him. In fantasy this exploration is limited only by the imagination in much the same way that philosopher employs the intellectual imagination to solve problems that science, common sense, religion, or art cannot solve on their own.

In his debut novel, Flight of the Ravenhawk, Apeiron is a world as boundless as its origin coming from Anaximander’s fragments. Wizard nobles vie for power in the Allurian Empire. Airships shoot lightning cannons. Elven archers fly atop griffins, and a dwarven kingdom is buried deep in the mountains far from elven or human spires. At the same time, Ed’s fiction cannot help but be inspired and instantiated by concepts that come from ancient, modern, and 19th and 20th philosophical systems of thought. It’s in his blood.

Ed grew up scattered across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Born in Lakewood, NJ and spending most of his life north of Pittsburgh, PA, Ed has been traveling to other worlds since he bought the Star Wars D6 RPG book by West End Games and Mage: the Ascension from White Wolf as a teenager. He grew up on Magic the Gathering, 80s fantasy movies, and many comics of the 90s amidst the rust belt of Western Pennsylvania.

Although a professor, Ed still goes to imaginary worlds with his friends at the age of 39. He’s in a classic AD&D game. His philosophizing meshes with the sensitivity to imaginary worlds. Just recently, he contributed an article about environmental ethics and the animated movie Wall-E in the upcoming Disney and Philosophy. He’s edited another pop culture and philosophy volume called House of Cards and Philosophy, co-edited an academic volume on phenomenology entitled Phenomenology for the 21st Century. He also published his first solo academic book called Persons and Values in Pragmatic Phenomenology (2018).  When asked if she was a philosopher once, the great Simone De Beauvoir said, “No, I’m a writer.” Upon hearing that many years ago, Ed has tried to write for many audiences and emulate her example.

Ed has been married to his wife, Ashley, since July 30th 2016. They live in Savannah, a magickal place in its own right and before that they lived in Cleveland. They have two cats: Olive and Lulu. Ed absorbs the sunlight of the beach, practices zazen, and while writing and teaching philosophy and other courses in the humanities, he shoots landscape photography. Despite all of this, his greatest joy is teaching and writing. “Writing fiction is simply being philosophical with narratives rather than directly talking about concepts.”