Prestigious fellowships open to ‘poets of merit’
$50,000 awards available to civic poets
Application deadline: Sunday, February 24, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET
To amplify the essential role poets laureate play in local and state communities throughout the country, the Academy of American Poets announces its call for applications to the 2025 Poet Laureate Fellowship program.
Poets are at the forefront of championing free expression and cultural understanding. The Poet Laureate Fellowships, each of which comes with a $50,000 award, are given to honor poets of merit appointed to serve in civic positions; to support them in creating new work; and to enable them to undertake meaningful and innovative projects that enrich the lives of their community members. In addition, the Academy provides up to $10,000 in matching grants to any local or state nonprofit organization, foundation, or business sponsoring a laureate’s project.
#SCArtists and poets laureate Ed Madden (Columbia, 2019), and Jennifer Bartell-Boykin and Glenis Redmond (Columbia and Greenville, 2023) are past recipients of these awards.
“Since 2019, more than 40 counties, states, and territories have established or revived laureateships,” said Ricardo Maldonado, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. “As leaders across the country recognize the value of having a public poet in their communities, it is also critical to ensure that poetry remains accessible to all as a counterbalance to the dizzying rise in censorship. We look forward to learning how laureates are fostering critical thinking and creative dialogue in public forums, championing the freedom to explore diverse perspectives across the nation.”
Since the creation of its fellowship program in 2019, with support from the Mellon Foundation, the Academy of American Poets has funded more than 120 poets in over 100 cities, counties, states, and Tribal nations, advancing initiatives that put poetry at the center of individual and collective experiences.
The panelists who recommend the recipients of the 2025 Poet Laureate Fellowships include poet, editor, and social justice advocate Diana Delgado; former academy chancellor and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Forrest Gander; Youth Speaks Executive Director Michelle Lee; senior program officer at the Institute of Museum and Library Services Dennis Nangle; and 2021–22 Los Angeles Poet Laureate and 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow Lynne Thompson.
Final award decisions are finalized and approved by members of the Academy’s Board of Directors.
Applications to the 2025 Poet Laureate Fellowships are open to qualified poets laureate through February 24, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Submit applications here.