History[edit]

The Academy of American Poets was created in 1934 in New York City by 23-year-old Marie Bullock ^[8] with a mission to "support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry." In 1936, the Academy of American Poets was officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Marie Bullock was the president of the Academy of American Poets for the next half a century, running the organization out of her apartment for thirty of those years. In 1982, Marie Bullock received a Mayor's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture. She also had received the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences, the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.^[9]


Since its earliest days, the Academy of American Poets has been guided by an honorary Board of Chancellors composed of established and award-winning poets who serve as advisors to the organization and judge its largest prizes for poets. Past Chancellors include W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Robert Creeley, Marianne Moore, Mark Strand, and May Swenson. Women as well as men were founding poets of the Academy; for example, Florence Hamilton.^[10]


As of 2018, the fifteen Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets are: Elizabeth Alexander, Ellen Bass, Marilyn Chin, Kwame Dawes, Forrest Gander, Linda Gregerson, Terrance Hayes, Brenda Hillman, Marie Howe, Khaled Mattawa, Marilyn Nelson, Alicia Ostriker, Claudia Rankine, Alberto Ríos, and David St. John.^[11]


As of 2020, Michael Jacobs chair the Board of the Academy of American Poets.^[12]


The Academy of American Poets administers several programs: National Poetry Month;^[13] the website Poets.org, which includes a curated collection of poems and essays about poetry, over 800 recordings and videos of poets dating back to the 1960s, and free materials for K-12 teachers, including lesson plans;^[14] the syndicated series, Poem-a-Day;^[1] and American Poets magazine. The organization also awards nine major prizes for poets, as well as 200 college awards sponsored at schools across the country.^[15]


In 1998, Fred Viebahn, husband of African-American poet Rita Dove, drew media attention to the lack of diversity on the Academy's Board of Chancellors; up until then, no poet of color had ever been elected to be a Chancellor, and only very few women.^[16] Subsequently, two female Chancellors, Maxine Kumin and Carolyn Kizer, resigned in protest.^[6] The Academy responded by instituting major changes and designating several new chancellors, including African-American poets Lucille Clifton and Yusef Komunyakaa.^[17]


Elizabeth Kray was hired in 1963 as the first executive director of the Academy of American Poets, and she served the organization until 1981.^[10][18] William Wadsworth served as executive director from 1989 to 2001.


In January 2020 the Academy received a grant of $4.5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in addition to the $2.2 million provided in 2019. The money will be used for the poet laureate program.^[19]


In 2023, the organization named its first Latino executive director and president, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado.^[20]