AAP Offers Resources to Celebrate National Poetry Month

This April will be the 10th annual National Poetry Month, and, to help booksellers prepare for the month-long celebration of verse, the Academy of American Poets (AAP), organizers of the annual event, have made numerous resources available on their website at www.poets.org. In addition to information on poetry-related reading series, lists of new books of poetry, and a Poetry Book Club on their site, AAP will be mailing National Poetry Month 2005 posters to all ABA member bookstores.

This year's poster is designed by Chip Kidd, the internationally renowned book designer. It features Emily Dickinson's dress and a quotation from one of her letters: "Nature is a haunted house -- but Art -- is a house that tries to be haunted." ABA member booksellers should be on the lookout for the poster, which is being mailed on Friday, February 25. Booksellers will also find bookmarks from the Children's Book Council in the mailing.

To mark the tenth anniversary of Poetry Month, the academy will be presenting a "10 Years/10 Cities Reading Series," with poets giving readings in cities from Boston to Los Angeles. Gary Snyder, Jorie Graham, Heather McHugh, and Maxine Kumin are among the featured readers. Complete details about poets, dates, and venues can be found online.

New this year on the AAP site is information about launching a poetry book club. To connect increasing numbers of readers with poetry, visitors to the Poetry Book Club will find how-to suggestions for starting a poetry book club, profiles of existing poetry reading groups, reading recommendations from leading poets, a monthly list of new poetry releases, and more.

Booksellers interested in receiving additional copies of the poster should send an e-mail to AAP Associate Director Charles Flowers at cflowers@poets.org.

Stores with Book Sense should be on the lookout for the Book Sense Poetry Top Ten, which will be announced in the March 10 edition of BTW and will arrive in the March Red Box mailing.