Resources
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Tips for a Good Poetry Reading
This post from award-winning poet Diane Lockward's blog offers sound advice for poets, hosts, and audience members. Lockward is the author of What Feeds Us and Eve's Red Dress, both from Wind Publications. (Hat tip to The Practicing Writer newsletter for the link.)
The Poetic Voice
Poetry podcast from educational publisher Houghton Mifflin features contemporary poets such as Donald Hall, Alan Shapiro and Natasha Trethewey reading and discussing their work.
The Pedestal Magazine
Online journal of poetry, fiction, reviews, and artwork, edited by poet and songwriter John Amen. They also accept submissions of "slam" poetry performances (send as MP3 files). Contributors have included Jim Redmond, Nathan Leslie, Arlene Ang, JoSelle Vanderhooft, and Linda Leedy Schneider.
The Moth: True Stories Told Live
The Moth is a NYC-based literary organization and performance space dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth directors work with storytellers to shape their tales into a performance piece. See website for submission guidelines, tour dates, and podcasts of The Moth Radio Hour.
The Drum
Published 10 times a year, The Drum is an online literary journal that features short fiction, essays, novel excerpts, and interviews, exclusively in audio form. Featured authors have included Susan Orlean and Lydia Millet.
Taylor Mali
Poetry slam champion and teachers' advocate Taylor Mali is also a driving force behind the award-winning Urbana Poetry Slam team, which performs every Tuesday night at the famed Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.
Slam News Service
Keep track of upcoming poetry slams and bouts across the US and the world. Hosted by "teacher, poet and traveling man" Michael Brown.
Six Video Poems at Poets & Writers
Multimedia presentations of poems by Anne Carson, Thylias Moss, and Aaron Fagan add new dimensions to the spoken word through interpretive dance, music, and graphics.
Quiddity: International Literary Journal & Public-Radio Program
Quiddity is a literary journal published by Springfield College-Benedictine University in Illinois. Contributors to the journal may also be invited to read their work and be interviewed about the writing process on Illinois Public Radio, an NPR affiliate. Links to samples of these broadcasts are available on their website. Contributors have included Douglas A. Blackmon, Dan Guillory, and Martin Willitts, Jr.
Poetryvlog.com
Video archive of contemporary poets reading their own work features a new short video every week. See website for instructions on submitting a video.
Poetry.LA
Online video showcase of over 150 poets reading their work at various venues in Southern California. Poets featured include US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan and Anne Carson. The site also includes video interviews with authors and publishers. Poetry.LA was started by poet Hilda Weiss and videographer/writer Wayne Lindberg as a way to bring broader exposure to poets beyond the coffeehouses, bookstores and cafes where most of these readings were taped.
Poetry Series on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS and the Poetry Foundation collaborated on this series of broadcasts featuring short-form profiles on living American poets and long-form segments on current debates in poetry. Listen/view past segments on their website.
Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Project
This joint venture of the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts awards over $100,000 in scholarships annually to high school students for memorizing and performing classic poems. Top prize is $20,000.
Periodically Speaking
Presented at the New York Public Library and co-sponsored by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, this reading series showcases poets and prose writers from influential literary magazines, introduced by their editors. Videos of past readings can be viewed on the NYPL website.
PD Info: Royalty Free Music
This archive of sound clips in various genres, from the website of the Public Domain Information Project, can help you enhance podcasts or other audiovisual recordings of your creative writing. Pricing starts at $7.95 per song.
Online School of Poetry
New venture seeks to bridge the worlds of literary academia and slam poetry. Instructors include former California poet laureate Quincy Troupe, performance poets Patricia Smith and Regie Gibson, prizewinning author Tom Daley.
National Jukebox
This project at the Library of Congress makes historic recordings of popular and classical music and spoken-word performances available online. Search the archives by artist name and genre, or simply enjoy the eclectic selections of the day. The collection features more than 10,000 78rpm disc sides issued by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1900 and 1925. Other material from the archives is currently being brought online.
MotionPoems
MotionPoems features short, evocative, professionally produced videos that dramatize the poems being read on the soundtrack. Featured authors include Robert Bly, Todd Boss, Jane Hirshfield, and Freya Manfred. At present, they are not accepting unsolicited submissions.
Massachusetts Poetry Festival
This annual celebration of Massachusetts poets and small presses is held every October. The festival is based in Lowell, Mass., and also includes events around Boston, Worcester, Amherst, and the Berkshires. Videos from the festival are available on their YouTube channel: presenters include Rhina Espaillat, Robert Pinsky, Nick Flynn, and Martin Espada.
Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam
This Cambridge, Mass. nightclub offers a poetry slam open mike followed by featured readers and jazz band every Sunday evening. Check out their weblog for news and links to some of their regular performers.
Live Hope Love
Kwame Dawes, the University of South Carolina's poet-in-residence, launched this multimedia site to chronicle the experiences of HIV patients and caregivers in Jamaica. The site features his own profound and lyrical poetry as well as video interviews and background stories of the people who inspired him.
Karla K. Morton
This Texas-based poet's book/CD combo, 'Wee Cowrin' Timorous Beastie', is a 17th-century Scottish epic story, written in rhyme, and set to an original musical score by the Juno award-winning Canadian composer Howard Baer. Morton's creative multimedia project brings the old world of European epic poetry together with a modern cinematic score.
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
This blog from the sponsor of the renowned Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival features video clips of readings by major contemporary poets (see the "Poetry Fridays" sidebar link), plus news about other cultural programs that the Dodge Foundation sponsors in New Jersey and beyond.
From the Fishouse
Audio archive of emerging poets features text and recordings of work by dozens of contemporary writers as diverse as Matthea Harvey, Leslie McGrath, Tyehimba Jess, and Xochiquetzal Candelaria.
Folded Word
Independent literary press with a special interest in adapting short written works into a variety of electronic media. One of their projects is Shape of a Box, the first YouTube poetry journal, which features videos by poets such as Ellaraine Lockie, Dan Nowak, and Pris Campbell.
Dodge Poetry Festival YouTube Channel
This YouTube channel features videos of readings and performances from the renowned Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, held biennially since 1986 in northern New Jersey.
Coffee House to Go
ESC! Magazine's monthly podcast for writers and the small press community offers readings of poetry, short fiction, interviews and reviews as well as featured music from independent bands and musicians.
Clips: The Video Blog at Poets & Writers
A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
Button Poetry
Founded by National Poetry Slam champion Sam Cook, Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of distribution, promotion and fundraising for performance poetry. Button produces and distributes poetry media, including: video from local and national events, chapbooks, collaborative audio recordings, scholarship and criticism, and many other products.
Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge
Poetry slam open mike and featured readers can be enjoyed every Wednesday night at this club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Billy Collins Action Poetry
Delightful short animated films in which former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poems out loud as accompanying images illustrate his words.
Audio Archives from the Academy of American Poets
Beginning with John Berryman's historic first reading of The Dream Songs on Halloween night, 1963, the Academy of American Poets has presented and recorded over 700 poetry readings, lectures, and symposia, making the Poetry Audio Archive one the world's richest aural records of poetry. You can search for audio clips by author or poem title, or browse the most popular selections. See their online store for poetry CDs to purchase.
Your Daily Poem
This growing archive of accessible contemporary and classic poetry will deliver a poem to your email inbox daily, weekly, or monthly. Subscriptions are free. There is also a moderated forum for sharing poems for critique. See website for submission guidelines. Reprints and previously published work accepted.
Verse Daily
Similar to Poetry Daily. Visit for a new free poem each day. Verse Daily selects from review copies of literary magazines and books. Web Monthly page links to poems on the Internet. Both famous and lesser-known poets are represented. Publishers, send review copies here.
The Writer’s Almanac
A daily program of poetry and history hosted by Garrison Keillor, suffused with his characteristic nostalgia and humor. Each day presents a pithy new poem and recalls birthdays of famous writers and artists, unusual holidays and resonant historical events. Rich food for a literary mind. Sign up to receive the Almanac each morning by email. The website archives past issues.
The University of Texas at Austin - UT Library Online
This large page of links to etexts shows what a wealth of classic literature is available free online. Choose from thousands of works of prose, poetry, philosophy, religion and world literatures. Some resources are limited to UT Austin users, but many are open to the public. Notable resources include Project Gutenberg, Bartleby and Banned Books Online.
The Post Office Poems
This blog is an interactive, ongoing poetry project highlighting Fall City, Washington, and the Snoqualmie Valley, written by an anonymous author and posted weekly on the bulletin board at the Fall City Post Office.
The Poem Tree
This outstanding site reprints contemporary and traditional poetry, with an emphasis on formal (metered) verse. Essays like this one by Richard Moore show the punch that rhythm can put into a line. If you're a published poet, consider submitting your work to the site. See the FAQ for details.
The NUB: Indie Arts Hub
The NUB is an app for iPhone and Android smartphones that provides a stream of independent arts and culture content from across North America directly to readers 5 times per week. Each day, you will find in your phone a new column, poem, short story, interview, profile, book/zine review, comic or rant from one of North America's best independent arts and culture magazines. As of 2013, The NUB features content from Broken Pencil: The Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts; Geist Magazine; Subterrain Magazine; Matrix Magazine; and Taddle Creek Magazine.
The HyperTexts
Showcases the work of classic and contemporary poets, with an emphasis on traditional forms.
The Academy of American Poets
Site includes over 1,200 poems by 450 noteworthy poets, with an emphasis on American and 20th century poets. Search by poem, poet and text. Numerous audio selections. See also the Online Poetry Classroom sponsored by the Academy, with its suggested 100 Best Poems to Memorize.
Sporting Poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Others
In this July 2010 feature from The Guardian newspaper, UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has collected sports poems from such well-known authors as Billy Collins, Wendy Cope, Lavinia Greenlaw, and Paul Muldoon.
Sonnet Central
An extensive archive of English-language sonnets with a discussion forum where poets can post their own work. Includes a selection of World War I poems by Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke and other contemporaries.
Smith College Alumnae Poets
The Poetry Center at Smith College celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2008 with readings by alumnae from the past 60 years. Poems by the participants and other Smith graduates are featured on this web page, including Celia Gilbert, Jane Yolen, CB Follett, Gail Mazur, and Claire Nicholas White.
Representative Poetry Online
Comprehensive site from the University of Toronto Library features a glossary of poetic terms, a daily calendar of events in the lives of famous poets, poetry critiques, and extensive poetry archives. Site is indexed by poem titles, first lines, last lines, author names, keywords and more.
Poets on Adoption
Curated by poet and adoptive parent Eileen R. Tabios, this site is a community for poets to share their experiences as birthparents, adoptive parents, or adoptees. Notable contributors include Jim Bennett, Nick Carbo, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Karen G. Johnston, and Carol Moldaw.
Poetry Daily
From hundreds of books, journals and magazines, one fresh poem is featured every day. Click here for poems from the past year. Occasionally presents essays and interviews with poets. And for every poet who's been horrified by woeful critiques of their work, this poem by Billy Collins feels your pain. Publishers, send review copies here. Beginning poets, don't miss the recommended books page.
Poetry 180
A poem a day for American high schools. For teens who think poetry is boring, remote and not for them, US poet laureate Billy Collins has 180 surprises. Comes with welcome advice on reading poems aloud.
PoemHunter.com
Over 25,000 poems by 4,000 poets. Classic authors like Shakespeare and Milton are well-represented, as well as many moderns. Search by title and name (text searches can also be made but results are unpredictable). Free poem-of-the-day newsletter introduces you to wonderful work like Tarantella by Hilaire Belloc.
Poem of the Week
This website edited by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale showcases previously published work by a different contemporary poet each week, along with his or her biography, blurbs, and an interview with the author. Sign up to receive Poem of the Week as an email newsletter.
