Twenty-two poets across the United States have been selected to receive $50,000 grants each for a variety of unique poetry projects. The Academy of American Poets made the announcement on Tuesday as part of the Poet Laureate Fellowship Program. Since 2019, the program has distributed $6.55 million in grants along with over $440,000 in matching grants.
This year, the chosen Fellows include Nandi Comer from Michigan, Traci Brimhall from Kansas, and Angelika Brewer from Ogden, Utah. Nandi Comer plans to display excerpts from Michigan poets on billboards with QR codes linking to the Library of Michigan’s website. Traci Brimhall aims to collaborate with chefs and poets for a community cookbook in Kansas, while Angelika Brewer is focused on creating a local archive.
Julia Bouwsma from Maine, Andrea Gibson from Colorado, and Joseph Rios from Fresno, California, are among the other poets selected for the fellowship. The funding for the fellowship program is provided by the Mellon Foundation.
Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander expressed her satisfaction in supporting these poets, stating, “These exceptional writers share the distinctive responsibility of advancing action, advocacy, and civic transformation in their communities through the power of poetry. We at Mellon are pleased to provide them with the additional resources needed to carry out this mission, building further appreciation of and engagement with the written word across the United States.”