ESSAYS ON WRITINGmore >

"No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made..."

-Amy Lowell

There are more than 400 essays and interviews on Poets.org, and many of them deal with the writing process. Read prose pieces that discuss poetic techniques, interviews about the writing life, and browse our glossaries of poetic terms and concepts.

HOW TO GET PUBLISHEDmore >

Read our Publishing FAQ, which provides reading resources for the budding poet and answers questions abouts where to submit your poems, what poetry scams to be wary of, and where to get good feedback on your work.

ACADEMY BOOK AWARDSmore >

The Academy of American Poets provides the most important collection of awards for poetry in the United States. Awards are available for poets at every level in their careers, from first-book prizes to lifetime achievement awards. Guidelines, entry forms, and lists of winners are available online.

AMERICAN POET MAGAZINEmore >

AMERICAN POET MAGAZINE

Launched in 1996, American Poet is the Academy's biannual journal. The publication includes essays and interviews on writing craft, and each issue features a "manuscript study" that analyzes the process by which a poem came into being.

THE LIFE OF THE POET 

"Poetry and Ambition"
by Donald Hall
"I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems..."

"The Poet"
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Every man should be so much an artist that he could report in conversation what had befallen him..."

"Beginnings"
by C. K. Williams
"Poetry didn't find me, in the cradle or anywhere near it: I found it..."