This year, we've launched Poet-to-Poet, a new multimedia education project that invites young people throughout the United States to write and submit poems in response to those shared by award-winning poets who serve on the Academy’s Board of Chancellors. Poet Laureate of California Juan Felipe Herrera, National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Edward Hirsch, NEA and Guggenheim Fellow Jane Hirshfield, Lannan Foundation Fellow Naomi Shihab Nye, Pulitzer Prize-nominee Ron Padgett, Jackson Poetry Prize-winner Arthur Sze, and Naropa Institute Co-Founder (with Allen Ginsberg) Anne Waldman will each read and discuss one of their poems in a series of exclusive videos.

After viewing the videos, students are invited to write poems in response and email them, along with their name and the name of the poet who inspired their poem, to [email protected] by April 30, 2014. A selection of submitted student poems will be published on Poets.org in May.

Teachers interested in offering the Poet-to-Poet project as a classroom activity can use our new common-core-aligned lesson plans.