Whether you’re a beginning writer or a longtime poet, finding competitions, community, and advice is an ongoing process. Reading others’ work, entering competitions, and participating in workshops can help you hone and maintain your writing skills. Stay in the loop and on top of your craft with these eight online resources for poets.
Poets & Writers
Founded in 1970, Poets & Writers is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers. Dedicated to developing and promoting authors, their easy-to-navigate site is chock-full of helpful information. Poets can learn about publishing and promoting their writing, find their community, and sign up for readings and workshops in their area. The folks at Poets & Writers work hard to make sure their information is up-to-date so you can find the newest and most relevant resources for you.
Poets.org
Produced by the Academy of American Poets, Poets.org is a resource for poems, poet biographies, essays, and K-12 teaching supplements. Since 1996, visitors have found poems, poets, poetry in their area, and even job postings through Poets.org. Through the site, visitors can also find competitions and prizes, scholarships, workshops, and endless ways to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization. The folks at the Poetry Foundation are committed to helping the public discover and celebrate the best poetry, encouraging new kinds of poetry, and creating new avenues for delivery. While you can find poems and poets through the site, you can also find podcasts, events, issues of Poetry Magazine, and a mountain of resources for K-12 learning.
Poetry Daily
For those looking to discover new poetry each day, Poetry Daily should be your new homepage. Founded in 1997, Poetry Daily is a non-profit anthology of contemporary poetry. Their editors read journals and books from across the world and select the most interesting poems to feature on their site. Included with each poem is information about the poet and the poem’s source. In addition to a new poem each day, you can find the latest news, poetry releases, and interviews to help you stay on top of what’s happening in the community.
Poetry 180
If you’re a fan of former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Poetry 180 is your new best friend. Accessed through the Library of Congress, Poetry 180 is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem each day of the school year (that’s 180 days). Billy Collins has selected the poems with high school students in mind. He recommends that students listen to the poems together, perhaps following the end of daily announcements or in a classroom. But even if your school days are long gone, this is a great place to begin or end each day feeling inspired.
Split this Rock
If powerful poetry that sparks a revolution is calling your name, Split this Rock is an amazing resource. Their aim? To foster a network of socially engaged poets. Split This Rock cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. The site is a great reminder that poetry can act as an agent for change by reaching across differences, considering personal responsibility, exercising free speech, and celebrating diversity in experience, language, and more to help us imagine a better world. Find festivals, workshops, contests, and more through their site.
Hello Poetry
Since May 2009, Hello Poetry has offered an uncluttered aesthetic to readers and writers of poetry. This peaceful community provides a space for writers to share their poems, gain feedback, and read others’ work without the clutter of ads or destructive comments. Members can leave constructive criticism, praise, or even “give suns” to shine a light on poems and push them to the front page.
Read Poetry
How could we get through this list without giving ourselves some props? At Read Poetry, we hope to provide a safe space to explore identity, diversity, and empowerment. Discover new poets, read interviews, find events, and get inspired by poetry prompts on the site. Our aim is to build a community that can share thoughts, feelings, experiences, and engage in self-care.
As writers, it’s easy to put ourselves in a vacuum and push through the process solo. While that might work for some, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of resources out there for those of us looking for a sense of community, opportunities for competition, and new poems to read.
