Farnaz Fatemi, poet laureate of Santa Cruz County, California, was awarded a $50,000 fellowship from the Academy of American Poets that she will use in partnership with Kent State University's Wick Poetry Center to produce a series of teen poetry workshops. Fatemi is an Iranian-American poet and writer and the author of "Sister Tongue," published in 2022 by the Kent State University Press. She was the winner of the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Wick Poetry Center for a poet's first book of poems. The prize awards the winner $2,500, the publication of thei...

Emma Guritza learned lessons outside of the classroom during faculty-led trip to Ireland Before leaving for Ireland, Emma Guritza deleted Snapchat off her phone. She wanted to be present during the trip, but not being glued to social media (as she put it), allowed for more than seeing the surroundings. Emma experienced Ireland. “It was beautiful to go on that [trip] and see all the nature and really be more present in nature,” she explains. “I was dealing with a lot of anxiety at the time with the trip by being abroad, so being in a place where I could be surrounded by beautiful scenery and...

The Academy of American Poets Awards $1.1 Million to 23 Poets Laureate Across the United States The Academy of American Poets announced today that it is awarding $50,000 each to its 2023 Poet Laureate Fellows for a combined total of $1.1 million. These twenty-three individuals serve as poets laureate of states, counties, and cities across the United States and will be leading public poetry programs in their respective communities in 2023–24. The Academy will additionally provide $114,500 total in matching grants to help secure the pledged support of the Fellows’ projects from twelve local 5...