Join Us for Poetry Month: Free Poetry, Events, and More!

Join us in celebrating Poetry Month this April with free access to Poetry magazine, events, and so much more! 

Free Poetry for Everyone
This Poetry Month, we’re thrilled to offer a FREE download of the April 2024 issue of Poetry for you to enjoy from anywhere! You can find the free issue in the Poetry magazine app, available through the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon. Download it today to read the poems featured in the latest issue, listen to poets reading their work, and explore weekly digital features!

Our April issue of Poetry celebrates first-time contributors, including Cyrus Cassells, Isabella DeSendi, Ariel Francisco, Rosalie Moffet, Corey Van Landingham, and many others. You’ll also find a special feature on artist Kara Walker, with new poems by Samiya Bashir, Krista Franklin, and Ruth Ellen Kocher that respond to Walker’s Back of Hand exhibition on display at the Poetry Foundation. Last but not least, we have a folio on poet, novelist, and translator Melvin Dixon, curated by CM Burroughs, that highlights Dixon’s pioneering work in Black LGBTQ+ poetics in the eighties and nineties. Read the full issue in our app or on our website. If you want a version you can hold in your hands, purchase a print copy in our web store, which features a special foldout of Kara Walker’s paintings.

Speaking of free poetry, if you’re not already a reader of our Poem of the Day newsletter, sign up today to start with a special series on poetry and science, curated collaboratively this month by poet S.J. Fowler and artist Rebecca Kamen (read more about their collaboration). You’ll receive poems by Will Alexander, Fanny Howe, Douglas Kearney, Eleni Sikelianos, Anne Stevenson, and others directly in your inbox.

Poetry Events
There’s a lot happening at the Poetry Foundation during Poetry Month and beyond, with several of our events available both in-person and online. Check out our Events page for everything that’s upcoming, including a 50th anniversary celebration of Graywolf Press on April 25, featuring poet Harryette Mullen with editors Carmen Gimenez Smith and Jeff Shotts. On April 20, join us for a reading and open mic with Poesía en Abril, an annual festival of poetry in Spanish, in partnership with Contratiempo and DePaul University. The Chicago Public Library is also hosting a range of Poetry Month events all over Chicago, and we’re proud to cosponsor their Poetry Fest keynote event with Poet Laureate Ada Limón on April 27.

If you’re in Chicago, don’t forget to visit our poetry library, where you can read from over 40,000 volumes of poetry, including chapbooks, literary journals, and rare books, and check out our current exhibition, Kara Walker: Back of Hand. Join us for a special in-person image and poetry workshop on April 4 that draws inspiration from the exhibition.

There are more fun opportunities to see poetry and Poetry magazine in the world this month: visit our table at EXPO CHICAGO at Navy Pier April 11–14, or, if you’ll be at the New Orleans Poetry Festival, come say hi at the bookfair April 20–21. 

Keep Poetry in Your Life All Year Long
Current Poetry subscribers can enjoy all our digital issues and special weekly features in the Poetry magazine app for free. To access the digital version on a mobile device, download the app and enter the email address associated with your subscription via the settings tab. You can also access the digital version on a computer. 

If you’re not a subscriber, sign up for a print + digital subscription for only $35! If you sign up today, you’ll start with our June issue. Or if you’re not into print, sign up for a digital-only subscription for only $30! Either way, you’ll enjoy everything Poetry has to offer all year round.

Thanks for spending Poetry Month with us!