Gearing Up for National Poetry Month

Too much snow and too little verse? April, aka National Poetry Month, is right around the corner. To help booksellers get ready, next week IndieBound will unveil the Spring 2010 Poetry Top Ten List, featuring title recommendations from independent bookstores nationwide. The list complements the dozens of resources available from the Academy of American Poets, including a new multimedia campaign, marketing tips, and, as always, the free official National Poetry Month poster. Posters will be included in the March Red Box mailing, landing in ABA member stores the week of March 8, and additional copies may be downloaded from the Academy's website, www.poets.org.

Poem on the Range, the Academy's new collaborative multimedia mapping project, allows users to upload their own videos and photos of poetic sites -- landmarks, cities, homes, and other places referenced in iconic poems. Poets.org [http://www.poets.org] recommends going "the extra mile by capturing your poetic pilgrimage on video as you read the poem on location." 

Other Poetry Month events include Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 29. Fans of poetry are encouraged to print out a poem and share or trade it with others. The public is also invited to write lines from a favorite poem in sand, with twigs, or chalk, and post a photo of their efforts in the Free Verse group page on Flickr, or on the Academy's Fan Page on Facebook.

Poets.org also features tips for booksellers on marketing National Poetry Month, and selling more poetry year round, contributed by indie bookstores, including The Booksmith in San Francisco; Prairie Lights in Iowa City, Iowa; Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi; and Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado.

The Academy's National Poetry Map, listing poetry events around the country, has also been updated and redesigned.

For more information about the wide range of initiatives for National Poetry Month, visit www.poets.org. --Karen Schechner